Environmental Management and Pollution Control (Underground Petroleum Storage Systems) Regulations 2020

In these regulations – abandoned storage system means a storage system that was in use before 31 March 2010 but has not been in use since that day;Act means the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994; approved form means a form approved by the Director;AS 4482.1 means Australian Standard AS 4482.1 Guide to the investigation and sampling of sites with potentially contaminated soil – Non-volatile and semi-volatile compounds, issued and published on 2 November 2005, as amended or substituted from time to time;AS 4482.2 means Australian Standard AS 4482.2 Guide to the sampling and investigation of potentially contaminated soil – Volatile substances, issued and published on 5 September 1999, as amended or substituted from time to time;AS 4897 means Australian Standard AS 4897 The design, installation and operation of underground petroleum storage systems, issued and published on 5 February 2008, as amended or substituted from time to time;AS 4976 means Australian Standard AS 4976 The removal and disposal of underground petroleum storage tanks, issued and published on 19 February 2008, as amended or substituted from time to time;AS/NZS 5667.11 means Australian Standard AS/NZS 5667.11 Water quality – Sampling – Guidance on sampling of groundwaters, issued and published on 5 April 1998, as amended or substituted from time to time; decommissioning assessment means an assessment conducted in accordance with regulation 36(2)(b) or regulation 38(2)(a); discrepant result, in relation to a loss-monitoring procedure undertaken in relation to a storage system, means a result that – indicates that the storage system may not be providing full and continuous containment; or is inconclusive as to whether the storage system is providing full and continuous containment; environmental site assessment means an assessment carried out in accordance with regulation 29;EPA guidelines means guidelines issued and in force under regulation 53; equipment integrity test, in relation to a storage system, or a component of a storage system, means a test – to determine whether the storage system or component is providing full and continuous containment; and that is – capable, at a minimum, of detecting a leak occurring at a rate of 0.38 litres per hour with at least a 95% probability of detection and a 5% or less probability of false detection; and capable of detecting a leak, described in subparagraph (i), from any part of the storage system that routinely contains petroleum; and evaluated and certified, by an independent third party using loss detection protocols, as meeting the performance standards specified in subparagraphs (i) and (ii); and carried out in accordance with – AS 4897; and the manner of testing certified by the independent third party under paragraph (b)(iii); and loss detection protocols; and reported on in accordance with loss detection protocols; groundwater-monitoring well, in relation to a storage system, means a well that is designed to enable the scrutiny, analysis and sampling of groundwater to determine whether petroleum from the storage system has entered any groundwater in the vicinity of the system; groundwater protection zone means an area of land declared under regulation 5 to be a groundwater protection zone for the purposes of these regulations; infrastructure owner, of a storage system, means a person who is, under regulation 8, an infrastructure owner of the storage system; landowner, in respect of a storage system, means an owner of a parcel of land on which the storage system is situated and includes a person who – has, in the exercise of a right under a mortgage, charge or other encumbrance, taken possession of the parcel of land; and has the power to sell or otherwise dispose of the parcel of land; leak means a loss of petroleum from, or gain of water into, a storage system; loss-monitoring procedure means a procedure, in respect of a storage system, that is – capable, at a minimum, of detecting a leak occurring at a rate of 0.76 litres per hour with at least a 95% probability of detection and a 5% or less probability of false detection; and capable of detecting a leak, described in paragraph (a), from any part of the storage system that routinely contains petroleum; and evaluated and certified, by an independent third party using loss detection protocols, as meeting the performance standards specified in paragraphs (a) and (b); and undertaken in accordance with loss detection protocols; and reported on in accordance with loss detection protocols; loss detection protocols means protocols issued by the Director under regulation 52; mandatory equipment means equipment that consists of all of the following:a non-corrodible tank and non-corrodible piping; secondary containment for a tank and piping; a dispenser sump; fill-point spill containment equipment; overfill protection equipment; a tank pit observation well; equipment that earths a storage system; monitoring well means – a groundwater-monitoring well; or a tank pit observation well; parcel of land means – a parcel of land owned by a landowner; or if a landowner owns several parcels of land, each parcel of which adjoins one or more of the other parcels – all of the parcels of land; petroleum means a fuel, or lubricant, that – is liquid at ambient conditions of temperature and pressure; and is used, is able to be used, or has been used, as a fuel or lubricant; and consists of one or more of the following:hydrocarbons derived from crude oil; biofuel – with or without additives including, but not limited to, ethanol, methanol, esters, toluene, lead, MTBE or ETBE; and includes, but is not limited to, the following:petrol; diesel; high-ethanol fuel such as E85; synthetic fuels such as 100% ethanol or biodiesel; gasoline; used (waste) oil; aviation fuel; kerosene; motor spirit; two-stroke oil; heating oil; piping means piping that routinely contains petroleum, but does not include vent piping or piping for petroleum vapour recovery; small storage system means – a storage system situated on a parcel of land where the total capacity of all storage systems on the parcel of land is less than 5 500 litres; or a storage system that contains used (waste) oil and has a capacity equal to or more than 5 500 litres but in which less than 5 500 litres of used (waste) oil is stored at any one time; small storage system loss-monitoring procedure means a procedure, in respect of a small storage system, that – uses manual tank-gauging in accordance with AS 4897 or any other method that is as capable as manual tank-gauging of detecting a leak; and is carried out on at least 2 occasions, at least 4 months apart, in each year; and requires the results of the procedures carried out to be recorded and given to a system operator of the small storage system within 7 days after they are carried out; storage system means a system that consists of – a tank that – is completely or partially buried in the ground; and contains petroleum or is designed to contain petroleum; and any structure, associated with the tank referred to in paragraph (a), that is designed to control the passage of petroleum into, out of or through the system, and any other structure designed to collect petroleum or contain petroleum loss, including piping and dispenser sumps but not including – petroleum vent piping; or petroleum vapour recovery piping; or the dispenser; or any other structure which is above ground – and includes a tank that was part of a storage system; suitably qualified person means – a person who holds site contamination specialist certification under the Certified Environmental Practitioner Scheme established under by-law 16.2 of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand; or a person certified under a scheme approved by the Director by written notice; or a person approved by the Director by written notice as a suitably qualified person; system operator, in relation to a storage system, means a person who is, under regulation 8, a system operator of the storage system; tank pit observation well means a tank pit observation well that has been installed in accordance with AS 4897; used (waste) oil means oil that has been used for lubrication or other purposes and has become unsuitable for its original purpose due to the presence of impurities or the loss of its original properties.

In these regulations, words and expressions used both in these regulations and in AS 4482.1, AS 4482.2, AS 4897, AS 4976 or AS/NZS 5667.11 have, unless the contrary intention appears, the same respective meanings as they have in those standards.

In these regulations, a storage system is in use if – the storage system is used only to store used (waste) oil, and used (waste) oil is added or removed from the storage system at least once every 3 months; or the storage system is used only to supply a back-up generator and petroleum is added or removed from the storage system at least once every 6 months; or in all other cases – petroleum enters or passes through any part of the storage system at least once a month; and infrastructure is present, the use of which allows petroleum to be removed from the storage system.

In these regulations, a person who is required to scrutinise soil or water may, but is not required to, use probes, testing or analysis to do so.