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Task Order 3003, Technical Directive No. 27 – Task 2, Subtask e – State Notification 

Requirements

Summary of State Notification Requirements

September 28, 2009

1.0 Background

This summary document reports the current underground storage tank (UST) notification 

requirements for all states and territories. Information was also gathered on the frequency of 

UST facility ownership changes. Two appendices are also included (Appendix A: 

Owner/Operator Organization Contact List and Appendix B: Table of State Notification 

Requirements in MS Excel format).

2.0 State Notification Requirements and Frequency of Ownership Changes Summary

Methodology

E

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Inc. researched all state and territory UST Program Web sites to determine state notification 

requirements for UST installation and UST facility ownership changes. E

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Inc. contacted the six

owner/operator organizations1provided by the EPA subject matter expert to gather information 

on the frequency of UST facility ownership changes.

Results

State Notification Requirements

Information on state notification requirements for underground storage tank (UST) installation 

was available for 55 of the 56 states and territories; information was not available for the U.S. 

Virgin Islands. All of the 55 states and territories with available information require notification 

of UST installation, although California’s regulations only imply that notification is required, but 

do not explicitly state this requirement.

Details of the timeline for required notification are as follows: 31 states or territories require 

notification prior to UST installation (Alaska, American Samoa, California, Delaware, Hawaii, 

Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, 

Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Northern 

Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, 

Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). The timeframe for pre-notification ranges from 

90 days (Washington and New Hampshire) to one day (Oklahoma), with most of the states and 

territories requiring either 30 days advance notice, or not specifying a timeframe. Twenty states 

or territories require notification within 30 days after UST installation: Alabama, Arizona, 

Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, 

Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia,

and Wyoming. Three states (Arkansas, Colorado and Florida) require notification within 30 

days after addition of regulated substances to the UST. Pennsylvania requires notification 

simply prior to addition of regulated substances to the UST (Table 1).

 

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In order to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, no more than nine contractors were contacted.
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 Table 1. Timeline for Notification of UST Installation

Pre-notification Required Number of States

Simply prior 10

<16 days 7

30 days 11

>30 days 3

Notification Required After Installation Number of States

After installation 20

Before regulated substance addition 1

After regulated substance addition 3

Notification Timeline Unknown Number of States

Unable to find information 1 (U.S. Virgin Islands)

Thirty-five states or territories (Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, 

Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, 

Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, 

Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, 

Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming) require direct notification of UST 

installation with a form supplied by the area government or through direct communication (i.e., 

phone, in person, or e-mail). The remaining twenty states or territories require indirect 

notification of UST installation, meaning that the notification is issued indirectly through an 

application or form that is not solely for the purpose of communicating the intent to install an 

UST (Table 2). The details of the indirect notification are as follows:

 Ten states (Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New 

York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island) require notification indirectly via registration. 

 Seven states or territories (American Samoa, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, 

Nebraska, Northern Mariana Islands, and Wisconsin) require notification of installation 

indirectly via a permit. 

 Connecticut requires notification via a tank life expectancy report. New Hampshire 

requires notification indirectly via construction plans and Vermont via a construction 

permit.

 Table 2. Notification Requirements for UST Installation

Type of Notification Number of States

Direct 35

Indirect, via: Registration 10

Permit application 7

Construction permit/plans 2

Tank lifetime report 1

Unable to find information 1 (U.S. Virgin Islands)

Information regarding notification requirements for facility ownership changes was not found for 

eight states and territories (U.S. Virgin Islands, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, North 

Carolina, North Dakota, and South Carolina). Based on this review of regulations, it appears that 
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these eight states and territories do not require notification of UST facility ownership changes. 

This could be confirmed by contacting these states and territories and asking about their

notification requirements (or lack thereof). All other states and territories require notification of 

changes in UST ownership/operators, although Nebraska’s regulations imply that notification is 

required, but do not explicitly state this requirement. Twenty-eight states require direct 

notification of the transfer, whereas 20 states require notification by indirect means (e.g., 

registration, permit application, evidence of financial assurance compliance, and reported results 

of self inspection conducted within three months of ownership change) (Table 3).

 Table 3. Notification Requirements for UST Facility Ownership Changes

Type of Notification Number of States

Direct 28

Indirect, via: Registration 13

Permits application 4

Other 2

Unclear, implied 1 (Nebraska)

No notification requirement identified 8

Frequency of Ownership Changes

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Inc. contacted six UST facility owner/operator organizations to assess frequency of ownership 

changes. Of these, only the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO) was able to 

provide the information requested. NATSO reported that ownership transfers over the last few 

years were 500 to 600 per year for the 6,200 retail diesel fuel facilities (i.e., could be classified as 

a “truck stop”) that are tracked nationally by the trucking industry; this is approximately eight –

ten percent per year. Although only 1,100 of the 6,200 are NATSO members, NATSO provided 

their estimate based on the universe of facilities that sell diesel fuel and therefore could be 

classified as a “truck stop” (6,200). The other organizations could not provide the requested

information on ownership changes because they do not keep statistics of UST facility ownership 

changes. 

Service Station Dealers of America (SSDA) was able to provide anecdotal evidence to the effect 

that UST facility ownership turnover rates are approximately 20 percent per year. Petroleum 

Marketers Association of America (PMAA) indicated that after the mergers of the major oil 

companies in 2002, nearly all of the major oil companies decided to get out of retail and sell all 

of their retail outlets. As a result, ownership changes have been extremely high in the past five

years. PMAA roughly estimated that out of 160,000 gas stations, there have been ownership 

changes at an average of at least 2,000 stations per year for the past five years (1.25 percent per 

year); however, these numbers are an educated guess and are not concrete data. The American 

Petroleum Institute (API), National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), and the Society

of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA) could not provide either data or 

anecdotal estimates for ownership changes.

Although only three varied and approximate values were obtained for the percentage of UST 

facilities that change ownership each year (1.25 percent, eight – ten percent, and 20 percent), 

these percentages were used to calculate a rough extrapolation of ownership changes among

UST facilities in the United States. Please note that the estimate generated from the PMAA 
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values is an educated guess and is not based on any concrete data. OUST estimates that there are 

232,684 UST facilities in the United States. Using the percentages obtained in this study, the 

national number of UST facilities that will have an ownership change in the next year ranges

from 2,909 (educated guess of 1.25 percent) to 18,615 – 23,268 (eight – ten percent) to 46,537

(20 percent). Because these extrapolations are based on widely varying percentages that are 

calculated from very limited data or are anecdotal, the accuracy of these extrapolations is limited.
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Appendix A. Owner/Operator Organizations Contact List

Industry and O/O 

Associations

Contact Phone E-mail Address

National Association 

of Convenience Stores 

(NACS)

John Eichberger (703)518-4247 jeichberger@nacsonline.com

National Association 

of Truck Stop 

Operators (NATSO)

Holly Alfano

Stephen Beaulieu

(703)739-8501

(703)739-8566

halfano@natso.com

sbeaulieu@natso.com

Petroleum Marketers 

Assoc. of America 

(PMAA)

Dan Gilligan, Pres.

Mark Morgan

(703)351-8000 dgilligan@pmaa.org

mmorgan@pmaa.org

Service Station 

Dealers of America 

(SSDA)

Paul Fiore (301)390-4405, 

Ext. 102

pfiore@ssda-at.org

Society of 

Independent Gasoline 

Marketers of America 

(SIGMA)

Ken Doyle

James Barnette

(703)709-7000 kdoyle@sigma.org

jbarnette@steptoe.com

American Petroleum 

Institute (API) 

Prentiss Searles (202)682-8227 searlesp@api.org