UST / AST

ASTM search distance Subject property and adjoining properties

Scope State / Tribal

These are storage tanks registered with a state or tribal tank program (E1527-21, Table 2). The federal tank rule is about underground storage tanks: it requires the owner of an underground tank system to notify the implementing agency, and it leaves out several kinds of tank. It sets no notice duty for aboveground tanks. Each state or tribe keeps its own registry under its own program.

What puts a property on this record

Part 280 applies to all owners and operators of an underground storage tank system as defined in 40 CFR 280.12, except as paragraphs (b) and (c) of 280.10 provide (40 CFR 280.10(a)). An underground storage tank is "any one or combination of tanks (including underground pipes connected thereto) that is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, and the volume of which (including the volume of underground pipes connected thereto) is 10 percent or more beneath the surface of the ground" (40 CFR 280.12). Regulated substances are CERCLA hazardous substances, other than those regulated as hazardous waste under subtitle C, and petroleum (40 CFR 280.12).

The definition leaves out several tanks, including a "Farm or residential tank of 1,100 gallons or less capacity used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes", a "Tank used for storing heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where stored", septic tanks, and flow-through process tanks (40 CFR 280.12). The part also excludes systems holding listed or identified hazardous waste, equipment such as hydraulic lift tanks, systems of 110 gallons or less, and systems with a de minimis concentration of regulated substances (40 CFR 280.10(b)). The only aboveground tanks part 280 mentions, those tied to airport hydrant systems and to systems with field-constructed tanks, are left out of its notice subpart (40 CFR 280.10(c)(2)).

The rule reads: "After May 8, 1986, an owner must submit notice of a tank system's existence to the implementing agency within 30 days of bringing the underground storage tank system into use" (40 CFR 280.22(a)). A person who acquires a regulated system must give notice of the change within 30 days (40 CFR 280.22(b)). "Owners and operators of UST systems that were in the ground on or after May 8, 1986, unless taken out of operation on or before January 1, 1974" had to give notice under the 1984 amendments, unless it had been given under CERCLA (40 CFR 280.22(a)).

What a listing shows, and what it does not

The regulation's notice is for an underground storage tank system as it defines one; it does not say a registry holds only such tanks. Notice is of a tank's existence; the notification section does not say a release occurred (40 CFR 280.22). Release reporting is separate (40 CFR 280.50).

A tank in an excluded category has no notice duty under part 280, and neither did one out of operation by the 1974 date above. So the absence of a notice does not show that no tank is there, and the standard cautions that records are often wrong or incomplete (E1527-21, 8.1.3).

Closure has its own rules. Owners and operators must give the implementing agency notice at least 30 days before permanent closure, or within another period it sets, unless it is done in response to corrective action. Before closure is completed they measure for a release, a step that operating vapor or groundwater monitoring showing none satisfies; if contamination is found, corrective action begins (40 CFR 280.71(a), 280.72). For a system permanently closed before December 22, 1988, assessment and closure are required when the implementing agency directs it, judging that releases may pose a threat (40 CFR 280.73).

In a Phase I ESA

The tank registration lists that states and tribes keep are a standard government record source, searched at the subject property and adjoining properties (E1527-21, 8.2.2, Table 2).

If the subject property or an adjoining property is listed, the standard says the pertinent regulatory files should be reviewed, to help the professional judge whether the listing means a recognized environmental condition (REC), a historical or controlled one, or a de minimis condition at the subject property, or the report explains why not; records from another source may be reviewed instead (E1527-21, 8.2.3.1, 8.2.3.2).

For a tank at the subject property, the answer turns on its status (in use, temporarily closed, permanently closed), whether a closure assessment was made and what it found, and what the site visit shows of fill pipes, vent pipes and access ways (E1527-21, 9.4.12). If the file shows a release has occurred, then unless judged a de minimis condition or a historical REC, the REC is listed in the Conclusions, and the professional should give an opinion on additional investigation (E1527-21, 3.2.20, 3.2.39, 12.7, 12.8). If it shows a tank with no release or likely release, the report says what was established. See registered underground storage tank with no reported release, underground storage tank removed with no closure report and aboveground storage tank on the subject property. For an adjoining tank, see adjoining or nearby property.

For every listing of the subject property or of another site inside the search distance, the report must give the professional's judgment on what the listing means for the analysis of recognized environmental conditions at the subject property, and one statement may cover several sites (E1527-21, 8.1.10).

What the federal rule says

Records of registered storage tanks (adjoining property).

40 CFR 312.26(c)(3)(iii), edition revised as of July 1, 2025

For the subject property the rule's list includes records and permits for storage tanks (40 CFR 312.26(b)(2)). The standard searches the subject property and adjoining properties (E1527-21, Table 2). The rule lets the procedures of E1527-21 be used to comply with its sections 312.23 through 312.31 (40 CFR 312.11(a)). For a party seeking the liability protections, the rule's inquiry is into releases of hazardous substances (40 CFR 312.1(c)(1)); the standard's scope also includes petroleum products (E1527-21, 1.1.2).

Where the record is kept

State tank program registries, most with public facility lookups. Tank closure reports live in the program's files. The federal rule has the results of the closure assessment kept for at least three years by the owners and operators, or mailed to the implementing agency when they cannot be kept at the closed facility (40 CFR 280.74). The regulation sends notices to the implementing agency, which is EPA or, in an approved state, the designated state or local agency (40 CFR 280.12, 280.22).

This page is general reference for environmental professionals. It does not classify any property. ASTM E1527-21 is the standard and is not reproduced here; the judgment of the environmental professional on the facts governs.

Classifying a finding

Situations in which this record type bears on the answer:

In each state

The state programs this handbook covers under this record type: