Throwback Thursday: UST Style

A fun photo from the good old days. Key words: leaded gas, full serve, gasoline-powered roller skates.

One thing we try to do at UST Training is to inspire operators to do a better job. There’s nothing in the training rules that expect this but we know enough about the UST industry and its professionals to know that simply explaining the rules isn’t enough. And every once in a while we get some feedback to know our customers understand this. Here’s an email we received today, Nov. 6. Thanks for noticing!

When you buy online training, an important feature is the account type you establish when you check out. When you set up an account you create a home base for you and your users to return each time to continue training, retrieve a lost certificate or study guide, or purchase more licenses.

UST Training has provided UST training online to hundreds of Hawai’i Class UST operators and is happy to provide a live version of the course: in the classroom, our in the field, or both. Need live, customized and engaging training? Contact us for a quote at 866-301-8265 or email us.

We’re starting to hear more definitive chatter from our sources that the proposed Federal UST rule revisions will be adopted in late 2014 or early 2015. These changes formally adopt the provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act (operator training, interstitial mandate, red tags etc.) plus adds a number of critical, missing, and/or overdue actions such as spill bucket inspections, sump testing, monthly walk through inspection and more.

This month’s spotlight shines on the most venerable and reliable UST journal LUSTLine, published by NEIWPCC, the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission. NEIWPCC is actually one of the oldest groundwater protection organizations in the US, getting its start by Congress in 1947 to help New England states (plus New York) strategize water-related issues.

It’ll be a busy week for us in Mid-November as we provide three live Class A/B courses in the Pacific Northwest. Sign up today and tell your friends.

Washington Class A/B UST Operator Training
Longview, WA
November 12, 2014
Private Class (Want your own? Contact us for a quote)

Aloha to our Hawai’i Class C UST operators. We’re starting to get calls about the annual refresher requirements by the HI DOH so we know word is starting to get out. Any questions about refresher requirements just give us a shout. We’re Pacific Time you should be able to catch a live person most days. Call 866-301-8265 or email us. Class A/B operators must refresh every five years so you ABs out there have some time.

If you’re new to UST Training you might not know it but we have a ton of great news post on our News Page. Check it out. There’s dozens of articles on UST equipment, training ideas and strategies, enforcement cases, new rules and more. Just browse the topics in order or use the search bar. It’s free!

This year’s trade show of petroleum equipment at the Las Vegas Convention Center was the typical smorgasbord of everything you could ever imagine being associated with USTs: tanks, pipes, fittings, sumps, flanges, monitors, pumps, sumps, nozzles, connectors, leak detectors, liners, the works. If you’ve never been to a PEI/NACS Show, you owe it to yourself to see it at least once.

Interesting new study about why it’s important to respond quickly to small spills at gas stations. This report claims 1500 liters or almost 400 gallons are spilled at a typical gas station every decade. (courtesy of PetrolPlaza)

Here is another article about USTs and ethanol about a “test to better understand the corrosion caused by bacteria in a vapor-filled, enclosed environment.” Courtesy of the American Society of Civil Engineers:  Researchers Develop New Corrosion Test

Tinian Fuel Services, Tinian, CNMI, USA

This month’s spotlight is one of the most remote gas station UST sites in the United States: Tinian Fuel Services on the island of Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. Tinian has a population of just over 3,100 people, is a US Territory, and served as a critical airfield base of operations at the end of World War II. If you could fly there from my office near Seattle, it would take over 17 hours to get there.

Final Underground Storage Tank Rule Under Review by White House OMB
By: Anthony Adragna | September 25, 2014 7:41 PM ET
Sept. 25 (BNA) — The White House Office of Management and Budget has begun reviewing a final Environmental Protection Agency rule that could expand monitoring and inspection requirements for certain underground storage tanks (RIN 2050-AG46).
Under the 2011 proposed rule, tank owners and operators would be subject to additional training requirements and rules for backup containment. The EPA has said the proposal would enable better detection and prevention of leaks known to cause groundwater contamination (76 Fed. Reg. 71,708).

The last live Class A/B course for Oregon for 2014 is scheduled for November 13 in Portland, Oregon. Certification is valid in Washington as well. Need a refresher? Want to train your backups? Yearning for a great introduction to UST systems? Sign up today!

OFA members get a 25% discount. Ask about group rates or private classes.

Oregon Class A/B UST Operator Training
George Fox University, 12753 SW 68th Avenue
Portland OR 97223-8305
November 13, 2014, 8 AM – 3 PM
Register now

More Tank Savvy Videos!

We’ve heard over the last few years our Tank Savvy Minute videos on YouTube have not only been a big hit but they’re being used for all sorts of UST Training applications.

So we created 10 more. Check them out!

Also feel free to tell us how you’re using these and what other topics you’d like to see covered.

Your first time to the NACS/PEI Show? Here are some great pointers to make the most of your time there. Thanks to PetrolPlaza!