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Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program Implements the Recovery Act
In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress appropriated $200 million from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund to EPA for cleaning up leaks from underground storage tanks.
The $200 million LUST Recovery Act money will pay for activities at shovel-ready sites to assess and cleanup underground storage tank petroleum leaks. The money may be used either to:
- Oversee assessing and cleaning up underground tank leaks, or
- Directly pay for assessing and cleaning up leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the cleanup is an emergency response.
EPA divided the $200 million LUST Recovery Act money as follows:
- $190.7 million to all states and territories (except North Dakota and American Samoa who declined LUST Recovery Act money) in the form of cooperative agreements to address shovel-ready sites within their jurisdictions
- List of states and territories receiving money, including amount for each
- Because the underground storage tank program is primarily implemented by states and territories, the vast majority of LUST Recovery Act money is going to state and territorial underground tank programs
- EPA used its existing LUST Trust Fund allocation formula to divide the $190.7 million among the 54 states and territories receiving LUST Recovery Act money
- EPA regional underground storage tank programs will enter into cooperative agreements with states and territories in spring 2009
- These cooperative agreements will include more detailed descriptions of state spending plans
- $6.3 million for existing EPA in-house contracts to do LUST eligible work (such as site assessment and cleanup activities) in Indian country
- This portion of money will go to assessing and cleaning up underground tank leaks in Indian country
- Because EPA implements the underground tanks program in Indian country, EPA regional underground storage tank programs will oversee assessing and cleaning up sites in Indian country
- Through a strategic planning process, EPA identified sites that were shovel ready in Indian country where LUST Recovery Act money could be put to work quickly
- $3 million retained by EPA, shared by headquarters and regions, for management and oversight
- The Recovery Act provides for up to 1.5 percent of the $200 million to be retained by EPA to pay for salary and other expenses to manage, oversee, and report on appropriate spending of the $197 million going to states and territories and for cleanups in Indian country
The LUST Recovery Act money for cleaning up underground storage tank leaks is intended to stimulate jobs such as those necessary to perform site assessments and cleanup activities. If all LUST Recovery Act money is used directly for assessment and cleanup work, EPA estimates that thousands of jobs and 1,600 cleanups will result.