Commercial Fund

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) operates a fund called the Virginia Petroleum Storage Tank Fund (VPSTF). The source of revenue for the VPSTF is a 0.2 to 0.6 cent per gallon state fee on regulated petroleum products. The primary use of the VPSTF is to reimburse for reasonable and necessary costs incurred in cleaning up petroleum releases from petroleum storage tanks. Instead of requiring the owner to pay for cleanup out-of-pocket and wait for reimbursement, the VDEQ allows the owner to assign the reimbursement payment directly to Greene Environmental.

There are some costs that are not covered under the VPSTF. The owner is required to pay a Financial Responsibility (FR), which is similar to an insurance deductible. The FR for commercial and industrial petroleum USTs (except heating oil USTs) is a function of the owner’s/operator’s total volume of petroleum throughput in the entire state. For owners/operators who have a total throughput of less than 600,000 gallons, the FR is $5,000. For owners/operators having throughputs greater than 600,000 gallons, the FR is determined via a sliding scale and can range from $10,000 – $50,000.

The proper closure/removal of the tanks is typically not part of the cleanup work, so it would be at the expense of the owner, in addition to the FR if the tank(s) leaked and cleanup was necessary. Costs for closure/removal of tanks is site specific, and we will be happy to provide an estimate for you.