The CGRS California team is keeping busy with helping customers meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Health & Safety Code requirements to test/inspect all overfill protection devices by Oct. 13.

California Health & Safety Code Chapter 16 Title 23 Section 2637.2 states that owners/operators of underground storage tanks (UST) installed before Oct. 1, 2018, must have their overfill prevention equipment inspected by Oct. 13 and every 36 months afterward, as well as within 30 days of the completion of a repair.

USTs installed on or after Oct. 1 have to have their overfill prevention equipment inspected upon the completion of installation, every 36 months thereafter and within 30 days of the date of the completion of a repair, according to the code.

Title 23 also requires UST owners/operators to notify the local agency at least 48 hours prior to conducting the inspection. Once completed, the UST owner/operator or a state-approved technician conducting the inspection must record the results of the overfill prevention equipment inspection on the “Overfill Prevention Equipment Inspection Report Form” located in Appendix IX of Title 23. The owner/operator must submit a copy to the local agency within 30 days of the completion of the overfill prevention equipment inspection.

With 10,000-plus gas stations in the state and delays in authorization from owners/operators to begin inspections, it’s likely many USTs will not be inspected by the deadline, said Matt Thomas, Business Development Manager for CGRS’s California ELD & Compliance Services.

But that’s not for lack of trying by Team CGRS.

“CGRS is performing four inspections per day with two crews covering the inspection requests from new and existing customers,” Thomas said. “Overtime is the norm.”

CGRS is working with Unified Program Agencies (UPA) – formerly Certified Unified Program Agencies, which are those agencies authorized to carry out UST inspections in California – and sending out testing schedules before the deadline.

“We’ll get to as many as we possibly can, and then work with the UPAs on behalf of those we can’t to complete their inspections as soon as possible,” Thomas said.