Petroleum Clean Up

The Petroleum Clean Up page of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) says Maine's underground and aboveground petroleum storage facilities store motor fuels and heating oil, and that besides spills in transporting and delivering fuel, the tanks and their piping can fail through corrosion, physical damage, inadequate maintenance and vandalism. DEP says it has guidelines to measure petroleum contamination and determine the cleanup needed. Its Petroleum Remedial Planning Unit manages the cleanup at large or complex sites.

In a Phase I ESA

This handbook reads DEP's petroleum cleanup records as the Maine form of the state leaking storage tank records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source; the pages read link no list of leaking tank cases as such, so the pairing is the handbook's reading. The general reading of a leaking tank listing is on the LUST page. DEP's Uncontrolled Sites page says sites with long-term petroleum contamination only, such as leaking underground fuel storage tanks or leaking home heating oil tanks, are handled by its Petroleum Remediation Program. The Petroleum Clean Up page links a quality assurance plan, dated June 2024, for environmental sampling and analysis under the Leaking Underground Storage Tanks Program. Three Maine details shape how to read a case.

• Cleanup plans are approved in writing. DEP says Maine statute, 38 MRS § 568, requires oil discharges to be cleaned up to the satisfaction of the Commissioner, and that written approval of cleanup plans is required. Ask for the approved plan.
• Fund payments rest on an agreement. DEP says statute limits payments that reimburse applicants to the Maine Ground and Surface Waters Clean-up and Response Fund to cleanup spending under a written agreement with the Commissioner that includes a remedial action plan and schedule, entered into before the cleanup starts. See the Fund page.
• The guidelines changed in 2023. The Petroleum Clean Up page links risk-based cleanup guidelines effective November 15, 2023, and says to review their Petroleum Addendum in Attachment C. DEP says they supersede the May 23, 2014 petroleum guidelines and address ground water, drinking water, direct soil contact and indoor air impacts from petroleum discharges. For a case closed before then, ask which guidelines it was measured against.

The long-term priority list

DEP's Long-Term Petroleum Remediation Priority List contains, in DEP's words, "only petroleum-contaminated sites referred to the Division of Technical Services for long-term remediation", and DEP says it is updated quarterly. It gives each site's rank, town, site name and spill number. The spill number is the key to the spill record; see HOSS.

Where to look a site up

• The Long-Term Petroleum Remediation Priority List is a page of its own.
• DEP's Hazardous & Oil Spill System Online Report Service searches spill reports by spill number, reported date range, location, tank type and keywords, once DEP has finalized a report's data for public viewing.
• DEP's GIS Maps and Other Data Files page maps Technical Services Spill Projects, with data refreshed daily. This handbook did not open the map.

Getting the file

DEP's online portals hold scanned finalized oil and hazardous spill reports and spill projects, searchable by criteria such as spill number, town or facility; the File Room, Reports and Lists page links them. Not all files have been scanned. The file room's paper files include Oil Remediation & Resolution, Insurance Fund Coverage Claims and Spill Files, reviewed by appointment at (207) 287-7843. Have the spill number when you ask. See File Room, Reports and Lists.

Sources

Maine Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Petroleum Clean up, no modified date shown.
• Long-trerm Petroleum Remediation Priority List, updated April 10, 2026.
• LUST Program Quality Assurance Plan, no modified date shown.
• Uncontrolled Sites, no modified date shown.
• Additional Resources, no modified date shown.
• Maps and Data, no modified date shown.
• File Room, Reports, Scanned Documents and Lists, no modified date shown.
• GIS Maps & Other Data Files, no modified date shown.