News And Events

Took a few days off and camped at Fort Stevens on the Oregon Coast. Even there, on the furthest reaches on the continental western US, I can’t get away from UST reminders. 🙂

June 23 marks the 11th Anniversary since Ben Thomas provided the nation’s very first state approved Class A/B UST operator training class in Portland Oregon. That’s right: the very first one.

To celebrate our 11 nonstop years of preventing leaking USTs, we are offering a 50% discount to our faithful customers between June 20-23, 2014. Stop by for the discount code a few days beforehand or wait for it in our newsletter.

(Did you know the tradition for giving on the 11th anniversary is steel?)

Kentucky provides free online training for their Designated Compliance Managers (DCM’s) which is the state term for combined Class A and B UST operators. UST Training helped develop this very cool, customized training that only gives you the training lessons you need. If you’re a Kentucky UST owner or operator, and haven’t taken the training, register now!

The Association of State and Territorial Sold Waste Management Officials or ASTSWMO recently published a report summarizing the most common UST violations in the US, which can be seen as a big help for those UST operators that want to avoid problems in the first place. The report combed though a staggering 32,000+ violations nationwide between 2010 and 2012. The report found the top three violation areas:

Here’s a few of our favorites. As a Class A/B operator we hope you know where yours is located and what these pictures are humorous. Have any originals you’d like to share? Email us at [email protected] and get a free training coupon voucher.

Second Class in Saipan. The graduates!

UST Training recently won the contract to return to the register today!

By Ben Thomas

Not everyone can say they started their career by climbing into an excavation pit containing a leaking underground storage tank but I guess I wasn’t destined to follow convention. The year was 1986, and, armed with a hard hat, a Buck knife, a Chevy Chevette and a gas explosion meter, I found myself overseeing UST removals in Vermont, one of the first states with UST rules. From 1989 to 1995 I oversaw cleanup of leaking USTs for the State of Alaska but found my real passion in 1996: preventing leaking USTs by coming up with creative ways to inspire the common UST operator. Creativity and bureaucracy don’t always see eye to eye so I left my government job to try my luck starting my own consulting business in 2002.

We now offer Class A/B UST Operator Training for the US Virgin Islands (USVI). All UST operators on St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John can take our national Class A/B UST operator course to meet the requirements of USVI’s DPNR UST Program. Click here to learn more.

Our USVI Class C course is also available.

You may not know it but the Steel Tank Institute or STI has been around since 1916 acting as the nation’s trade association leader for the fabricators of steel construction products and their suppliers. In the UST world, if you see a tank with the STI logo on it you know it has been manufactured to today’s STI standards, including the 3 “P’s” of Protection: electrical isolation, special coating and cathodic protection via sacrificial anode. By now all our Class A and Class B UST operators should be familiar with these terms.

How well do you know your training company? Did you know these ten things? Read on!