News And Events

Ben Thomas brings to the UST industry over 25 years of experience, networking and ideas to help owners and operators solve complex technical problems in the management of underground storage tank or UST systems. Ben’ experience goes back to 1986, when he supervised UST removals in Vermont. Between 1989 and 1995, Ben oversaw cleanup of leaking UST sites in northern Alaska. From 1995 to 2002, he ran Alaska’s UST leak prevention program. Ben gained national attention for his innovative work in web page development, outreach material, financial responsibility compliance, and most notably the Alaska third party inspection program. Ben left Alaska in 2002 to focus fully on his own business and concentrate his interests in education, training, and outreach to the nation’s UST owners and operators. Ben’s not positive but he’s pretty sure he has the dubious distinction of having trained– directly or indirectly–more UST operators than anyone else in the United States. Ben lives on Whidbey Island, WA with his family.

Training for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Albuquerque, NM, 2006

As you know we offer Class A/B training in many states but you may not know we also provide operator training to Indian Tribes. Tribal training is on the horizon if the EPA proposed rule changes are adopted so it’s not too late to think about bringing training to your area. Our former clients include Seneca Nation of Indians, Pueblo of Laguna, Inter-tribal Council of Arizona, Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa, Cherokee Nation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

We offer custom Class A/B UST operator training to meet your particular goals and objectives. Live or webinar-based.  Give us a call at 866-301-8265 or email us today to learn more.

Check out this fun link we found about the good ol’ days of UST systems. Notice the uniforms on these old time Class C UST operators!

Get trained today

We’re busy this spring with Class A/B UST Operator training in a number of states:

Colorado: We have another webinar June 5 and we still have seats available. Sign up today. CWPMA members get an extra discount.
Guam: Our Wisconsin course is approved by reciprocity by the Guam EPA. Missed the course last summer? Sign up today.
Oregon: Two lives class coming up June 12 in Hermiston. Also valid in WA. OPA members get an extra discount.
Washington: We have another webinar June 18 and we still have seats available. Sign up today. Custom live classes available with sufficient enrollment. Contact us for details. Also valid in AK and ID.
West Virginia: We have on-going self-paced class A/B training. Sign up today. Also valid in AL, VA and DC.
Wisconsin: We have on-going self-paced training AND save $75.00 when you apply for a state grant. Sign up today and apply for the grant ASAP. Also valid in Guam.

Seattle Times, May 9, 2013: Blaze erupts when car strikes gas pump on Seattle’s First Hill

We’re not sure why there were eight feet of flames but the article implies it was the car and not the dispenser that caught fire so perhaps the shear valve worked properly.

The Class C UST operator quickly hit the emergency shut off switch and put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher before help arrived. Go Class C operator!

For the first time in many years, UST Training is coming to eastern Oregon to offer a live Class A/B UST operator training class on June 13. Certification from this class is valid in both Oregon and Washington.

Exact location to be announced shortly. Help spread the word. It’s not every day we come to the Hermiston-Pendleton area so don’t miss out. Want more information? Call 866-301-8265 or [email protected]

We also has our regular quarterly class in Portland the day before on June 12. Learn more and register today.

Hey Seattle- and Yakima Area UST Operators. We’re getting some calls requesting that we bring a live class to these areas and we’re happy to do so if we can get enough students to enroll. If you are in these areas and need Class A/B UST operator training, please let us know ASAP and perhaps we can arrange something.

Maybe you never got trained; maybe your trained operator left; maybe you just want a backup. For whatever reason, we’re happy to bring the training to you pending sufficient enrollment. Contact us at 866-301-8265 or email us at [email protected] to learn more. Also if there are other parts of Washington you need training brought too, let us know as well.

(Courtesy of PMAA)
To make it easier for tank owners to access information on the compatibility of underground storage tank system components with E-15, the EPA has set up a new online resource where equipment manufacturer certifications, UL listings, and other compatibility information are posted and made available for download.

The issue of UST equipment compatibility arose when the EPA first considered the introduction of E-15 blends in 2010. Up until this time, marketers didn’t worry about demonstrating equipment compatibility because all existing UST system components were approved by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for a maximum E-10 blend – the highest ethanol blend then allowed for conventional vehicles under federal law. Now that gasoline blends up to 15 percent ethanol are permitted, tank owners must affirmatively demonstrate that their UST system equipment is compatible with E-15 blends before offering it for sale.

With May upon us, I’ve been thinking back to May of 1986 when I was hired as a young and naive UST inspector for the state of Vermont. The Green Mountain State had just adopted prototype tank rules a few years before the Federal rules would go into effect. My job was to watch all the old rusty tanks come out of the ground from operators who were trying to beat the pending deadline –mandatory double walled tanks– by removing old single wall tanks and installing new single walled tanks.

My job, after getting properly trained of course, was to climb into tank pits with a PID meter, hard hat and a Buck knife and dig for potential fugitive vaporous soil that the excavator might have missed. I recall the LEL meter only going off once at 10% of the lower explosive limit; those were definitely the Wild West days of UST management.

I recently tried to find my old copy of the Vermont cleanup standards that declared in written policy a high priority leaking UST site was one that you could squeeze a gloved handful of soil and gasoline would ooze out. Hard to believe based on where we are today.

Many small UST companies like independent convenience stores have a handful of Class C operators and the path to train them is simple enough. As you know by now, most states (West Virginia being the one exception we’re aware of) allow a trained, certified Class A/B operator to train your Class C employees. Otherwise you go to your favorite, approved, online Class C training vendor, setup a user account, swipe your credit card, start the training and print the certificate (assuming a passing score of course). We see a fair amount of web traffic across the US that indicates a number of small UST companies do in fact use online training.

Live, on-site training has many advantages including developing creative content, being able to look the person in the eye, and explaining and any extra company policies while you train. And maybe someone in your organization kinda/sorta does this type of training anyways. Remember: Class C operators need to be trained BEFORE they start their duties, so any UST owner worth their salt should already have folded the Class C material into the company orientation for new employees.