Costs/Financial Assistance :: Residential & Farm Tanks

»Cost/Financial Assistance :: Commercial & Industrial Tanks

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) operates a fund called the Virginia Petroleum Storage Tank Fund (VPSTF). The source of revenue for the VPSTF is a 0.6% state fee on regulated petroleum products. The primary use of the VPSTF is to reimburse for reasonable and necessary costs incurred in cleaning up petroleum releases from petroleum storage tanks. Instead of requiring the owner to pay for cleanup out-of-pocket and wait for reimbursement, the VDEQ allows the owner to assign the reimbursement payment directly to Pollard Environmental, thereby simplifying the process.

There are some costs that are not covered under the VPSTF. The owner is required to pay a Financial Responsibility (FR), which is similar to an insurance deductible. For heating oil and farm tanks the FR is $500. There is usually an initial inspection and reporting fee in addition to the FR, but it usually does not exceed $500. Therefore, 90% of the cases that we handle result in less than $1,000 out-of-pocket expense (to the client) to perform the VDEQ-required investigation and/or cleanup associated with a leaking residential or farm tank, regardless of the degree of contamination. The 10% of cases that result in out-of-pocket costs exceeding $1,000 usually do so because of difficult access to the tank (e.g., the tank is under a deck or patio, etc.) resulting in additional, non-reimbursable costs. The VPSTF coverage is up to a maximum of $1 million dollars per occurrence.

The payment process is simple. The client pays the agreed out-of-pocket fee (again, usually less than $1,000) and the additional charges are pursued through the VPSTF. We prepare the paperwork, and the client assigns the VPSTF payment to Pollard Environmental. Per our contract, the client is not responsible if the VPSTF fails to pay. We are able to make this commitment because the required cleanup activities are pre-authorized by a specific case manager at the VDEQ before beginning work.

It is important to know that the above estimated pricing is to perform VDEQ-required environmental clean-up work only. Depending on the nature of the release and the risks, this may or may not include the removal of the tank. If a removal or filling the tank is not included in the VDEQ-required work, the client may choose to have it done at his/her own expense. If so, the typical additional cost ranges from $800-$1,400.