Petroleum Assessment and Cleanup Handbook

The Petroleum Assessment and Cleanup Handbook is the guidance the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) names for site assessment and cleanup work at petroleum release sites. Its full title is Handbook for Investigation and Corrective Action Requirements for Discharges from Storage Tanks, Piping Systems and other Releases. DANR's Inspection, Compliance, and Remediation Program publishes it with a set of look-up tables and a guidance document on the risk a release poses to wells.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name cleanup guidance among its standard record sources. Because DANR names the handbook for assessment and cleanup work at petroleum release sites, it helps in reading a closed case in the Tanks and Spills Map or a Spills Reporting file. Three details bear on that reading.

• Editions. DANR's closing tanks page refers tank owners and closure contractors to Version 2.0 of the handbook, dated March 2003. The handbook page links a download without giving its edition, and this handbook did not open it. When reading an old closure, ask which version of the handbook and which tables applied when the case closed.
• Look-up tables. DANR's tank and spill pages list the tables it publishes: a surface soil table, two indoor air tables (one for groundwater, one for soil), a table for PVC water lines, a site conceptual model sheet, and guidance on using the tables. This handbook did not open them and carries no number from them.
• Wells near a release. DANR describes its guidance on risk to public and private wells as setting out how to judge that risk at a petroleum release site, and as clarifying the Tier 2 risk-based assessment and the Tier 3 requirements at aquifer sites, wellhead protection areas included. Tier 3 modeling can follow where a Tier 2 assessment found public or private wells. For a case near a well or a wellhead protection area, ask whether the file holds a Tier 2 or Tier 3 evaluation.

Who may do the work

DANR's handbook page says the South Dakota Board of Technical Professions licenses and regulates the professional practice of petroleum release services, and that a person must hold the Board's license before offering those services on projects in the state. DANR's closing tanks page adds that whoever collects soil or groundwater samples for petroleum hydrocarbon analysis must be certified by the state.

Where to read the handbook and tables

• DANR's Petroleum Handbook page links the handbook download.
• The look-up tables and the wells guidance are linked from DANR's Storage Tanks and Spills Reporting pages.
• Questions go to DANR's Inspection, Compliance, and Remediation Program at (605) 773-3296.

Sources

South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Inspection, Compliance & Remediation Program (the Petroleum Handbook page)
• Closing Tanks
• South Dakota Storage Tanks Program
• South Dakota Inspection Compliance & Remediation (the Spills Reporting page)