EMAIL TO PMAA UST TASK FORCE MEMBER FROM MAJOR PETROLEUM MARKETER 

INSURANCE PROVIDER:

This follows up on our conversation about a potential for increased exposure to accidents that 

might result from the proposed storage tank rules. The c-store industry has not been required to 

do many of the associated tasks before so it’s not surprising to find very limited injury data 

related to this. 

While I'm not able to discuss specific claims, as you guessed there have been several employee 

injury mishaps that occur in a c-store parking lots, and many of these are associated with slip, 

trip, or fall incidents. Some incidents occurred where a vehicle struck an employee such as by a 

car cutting through a driveway when the employee was going to the pumps or around the

building but this type of injury seems to be infrequent. Fatal incidents are investigated by the 

Department of Labor and a public record is available. For example, searching within SIC 5411 

(convenience stores) you can find one fatality from a vehicle, but this was not a tank-related task. 

See http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=311289417

In the forwarded analysis: Page 5-14 shows a Footnote [35] where "... EPA estimates that 

monthly walkthrough inspections of a facility will take nearly an hour to complete, on average. 

A compliant owner or operator in a state that does not currently have this requirement will need 

to allocate 12 man-hours of incremental effort per year to satisfy this portion of the proposed 

rule."

I want to share my opinion of which is not an exhaustive or comprehensive evaluation of the 

potential exposure and should not be considered legal advice regarding the unique needs for a 

specific operation.

 The cost model may not have taken into consideration the employee turnover and how it affects 

the quality of inspection or impact to other store operations. Since the function of a c-store 

employee is to generally supervise transactions from customers, the added tasks could impose a 

cost for having a second employee to either handle the tank related tasks or to handle customer 

transactions for an hour, plus time/travel expense if rotating from a secondary location.

 Vehicle damage to dispensers and signs is common and is why post barrier guards are used. Cstores are usually sited to facilitate vehicles that may enter from relatively fast paced traffic. 

Anyone looking inside an access hole would not have the same situational awareness that a 

pedestrian on the lot would have for oncoming traffic. A driver may not easily see the employee if 

they are bending over inspecting a sump. This could increase an exposure that is not currently 

experienced with much frequency. 

 Job descriptions and qualifications may need to be modified. Specialized knowledge and training 

should be considered along with the functional capacity for an employee to do the physical work. 

A person hired to operate a register and activate an emergency stop may not be necessarily able 

to lift a steel cover in the driveway. This could impact employment related practices for some that 

are disabled or have other work restrictions. 

 Many high volume fuel sale locations only have an attendant in a booth on the center island, and 

they leave only at shift change or an emergency. At such locations, outside tasks are generally 

handled by others so additional tasks would need to be arranged with a maintenance department 

of contracted out. This may be a crime/security/safety issue, as well.