2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 8 - LABOR AND INDUSTRY (§§ 8-1-101 — 8-88-207) › LABOR I - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT (§§ 8-1-101 — 8-20.5-401) › FUEL PRODUCTS (§§ 8-20-101 — 8-20.5-401) › Article 20.5 - PETROLEUM STORAGE TANKS (§§ 8-20.5-101 — 8-20.5-401) › Part 1 - ADMINISTRATION (§§ 8-20.5-101 — 8-20.5-108) › Section 8-20.5-101 - Definitions

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Abandoned tank" means an underground or aboveground petroleum storage tank that the current tank owner or operator or current property owner did not install, has never operated or leased to another for operation, and had no reason to know was present on the site at the time of site acquisition.
(2)
(a)
"Aboveground storage tank" means any one or a combination of containers, vessels, and enclosures, including structures and appurtenances connected to them, constructed of nonearthen materials, including but not limited to concrete, steel, or plastic, which provide structural support, used to contain or dispense fuel products and the volume of which, including the pipes connected thereto, is ninety percent or more above the surface of the ground.
(b)
"Aboveground storage tank" does not include:
(I)
A wastewater treatment tank system that is part of a wastewater treatment facility;
(II)
Equipment or machinery that contains regulated substances for operational purposes;
(III)
(A)
Farm and residential tanks or tanks used for horticultural or floricultural operations.
(B)
Nothing in sub-subparagraph (A) of this subparagraph (III), as amended by House Bill 05-1180, as enacted at the first regular session of the sixty-fifth general assembly, shall be construed as changing the property tax classification of property owned by a horticultural or floricultural operation.
(IV)
Aboveground storage tanks located at natural gas pipeline facilities that are regulated under state or federal natural gas pipeline acts;
(V)
Aboveground storage tanks associated with natural gas liquids separation, gathering, and production;
(VI)
Aboveground storage tanks associated with crude oil production, storage, and gathering;
(VII)
Aboveground storage tanks at transportation-related facilities regulated by the federal department of transportation;
(VIII)
Aboveground storage tanks used to store heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where stored;
(IX)
Aboveground storage tanks used to store flammable and combustible liquids at mining facilities and construction and earthmoving projects, including gravel pits, quarries, and borrow pits where, in the opinion of the director of the division of oil and public safety, tight control by the owner or contractor and isolation from other structures make it unnecessary to meet the requirements of this article;
(X)
Any other aboveground tank excluded by regulation.
(2.5)
"Alternative fuel" means a motor fuel that combines petroleum-based fuel products with renewable fuels.
(3)
"Closure" means the abandonment of an underground storage tank in place or the removal and disposal of an underground storage tank.
(4)
"Department" means the department of labor and employment, created in section
24-1-121
, C.R.S.
(5)
"Designee" means a qualified municipality, city, home rule city, city and county, county, fire protection district, or any other political subdivision of the state, including a county or district public health agency created pursuant to section
25-1-506
, C.R.S., which county or district public health agency is acting under agreement or contract with the department for the implementation of the provisions of this article.
(5.5)
"Fee lands" means land owned in fee simple within the exterior boundaries of the Southern Ute Indian reservations in Colorado. "Fee land" does not mean land owned by an Indian tribe or the federal government or held in trust by the federal government for the use or benefit of an Indian tribe or its members.
(6)
"Fuel products" means all gasoline, aviation gasoline, diesel, aviation turbine fuel, jet fuel, fuel oil, biodiesel, biodiesel blends, kerosene, all alcohol blended fuels, gas or gaseous compounds, and other volatile, flammable, or combustible liquids, produced, compounded, and offered for sale or used for the purpose of generating heat, light, or power in internal combustion engines or fuel cells, for cleaning or for any other similar usage.
(7)
"Municipality" means any city or any town operating under general or special laws of the state of Colorado or any home rule city or town, the charter or ordinances of which contain no provisions inconsistent with the provisions of part 3 of this article.
(8)
"Operator" means any person in control of, or having responsibility for, the operation of an underground or aboveground storage tank.
(9)
"Orphan tank" means an underground storage tank which is:
(a)
Owned or operated by an unidentified owner as defined in this article; or
(b)
No longer in use and was not closed in accordance with the procedures required by this article and the property has changed ownership prior to December 22, 1988, and such property is no longer used to dispense fuels.
(10)
(a)
"Owner" means:
(I)
In the case of an underground storage tank in use on or after November 8, 1984, or brought into use after that date, any person who owns an underground storage tank used for the storage, use, or dispensing of regulated substances;
(II)
In the case of an underground storage tank in use before November 8, 1984, but no longer in use on or after November 8, 1984, any person who owned such tank immediately before the discontinuation of its use; or
(III)
Any person who owns an aboveground storage tank.
(b)
For purposes of corrective action for petroleum releases, the term "owner" does not include any person who, without participating in the management of an underground storage tank and otherwise not engaged in petroleum production, refining, and marketing, holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect a security interest in or lien on the tank or the property where the tank is located.
(11)
"Person" means any individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, commission, municipality, state, county, city and county, political subdivision of a state, interstate body, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, or the government of the United States.
(12)
"Property owner" means a person having a legal or equitable interest in real or personal property that is subject to this article.
(13)
"Regulated substance" means:
(a)
Any substance defined in section 101 (14) of the federal "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980", as amended, but not including any substance regulated as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of Title II of the federal "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976", as amended;
(b)
Petroleum, including crude oil, and crude oil or any fraction thereof that is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure (60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute);
(c)
Alternative fuel; or
(d)
Renewable fuel.
(14)
"Release" means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching, or disposing of a regulated substance from an underground storage tank into groundwater, surface water, or subsurface soils.
(14.5)
"Renewable fuel" means a motor vehicle fuel that is produced from plant or animal products or wastes, as opposed to fossil fuel sources.
(15)
"Reportable quantities" means quantities of a released regulated substance which equal or exceed the reportable quantity under the federal "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980", as amended, and petroleum products in quantities of twenty-five gallons or more.
(16)
"Tank" means a stationary device designed to contain an accumulation of a regulated substance, constructed primarily of nonearthen materials which provide structural support including, but not limited to, wood, concrete, steel, or plastic.
(17)
(a)
"Underground storage tank" means any one or combination of tanks, including underground pipes connected thereto, except those identified in paragraph (b) of this subsection (17), that is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances and the volume of which, including the volume of underground pipes connected thereto, is ten percent or more beneath the surface of the ground.
(b)
"Underground storage tank" does not include:
(I)
Any farm or residential tank with a capacity of one thousand one hundred gallons or less used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes;
(II)
Any tank used for storing heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where stored;
(III)
Any septic tank;
(IV)
Any pipeline facility, including its gathering lines, regulated under the federal "Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968", as amended, or the federal "Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979", as amended, or regulated under Colorado law if such facility is an intrastate facility;
(V)
Any surface impoundment, pit, pond, lagoon, or landfill;
(VI)
Any storm-water or wastewater collection system;
(VII)
Any flow-through process tank;
(VIII)
Any liquid trap or associated gathering lines directly related to oil or gas production and gathering operations;
(IX)
Any storage tank situated in an underground area, such as a basement, cellar, mine-working, drift, shaft, or tunnel area, if the tank is situated upon or above the surface of the floor;
(X)
Any pipes connected to any tank described in subparagraphs (I) to (IX) of this paragraph (b); or
(XI)
Any other underground tank excluded by regulation.
(18)
"Upgrade" means the addition or retrofit of some systems such as cathodic protection, lining, modification of the system piping, or spill and overfill controls to improve the ability of a petroleum storage tank system to prevent the release of product.
L. 95: Entire article added, p. 389, § 1, effective July 1. L. 96: (1) and (2)(b) amended and (17)(b)(XI) added, pp. 710, 711, §§ 2, 3, effective May 15. L. 2001: (2)(b)(IX) amended, p. 1125, § 41, effective June 5. L. 2005: (5.5) added, p. 418, § 4, effective July 1; (2)(b)(III) amended, p. 347, § 2, effective August 8; (6) amended, p. 1348, § 21, effective August 8. L. 2007: (2.5) and (14.5) added and (13) amended, p. 1760, §§ 3, 4, effective June 1. L. 2008: (5) amended, p. 2051, § 4, effective July 1. L. 2009: (13)(a) amended, (SB 09-292), ch. 369, p. 1939, §6, effective August 5.
This section is similar to §§ 8-20-501, 8-20-601, 8-20-702, and 25-18-102 as they existed prior to 1995.
For the federal "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980", see Pub.L. 96-510, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq. For the federal "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976", see Pub.L. 94-580, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.