Commission Staff Activities 



Although the working group was able to identify what it believed to be all 

 relevant issues related to the environmental excellence proposal and developed 

 resolutions for many them, the working group was not able to resolve all issues or 

 achieve consensus on a proposed bill. As a result, the proponents of the environmental 

 excellence agreement concept requested that the ERC recommend their original proposal 

 to the General Assembly. This proposal appears in this report as "Environmental 

 Excellence Agreements - 1 ." 



Leaking Petroleum Underground Storage Tanks 



This working group, which dates back to the enactment of the Leaking Petroleum 

 Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Act of 1988 (G.S. 143-215. 94A et seq.), is perhaps 

 the longest running and most successful of the environmental and natural resources 

 working groups. The group was convened in February 2000 to consider the application 

 of land-use restrictions to risk-based cleanups of environmental contamination resulting 

 from releases from underground petroleum storage tanks (USTs). The need for this 

 discussion resulted from the enactment in 1999 of S.L. 1999-198 (Senate Bill 1 159, 

 codified as G.S. 132B-279.9 and G.S. 143B-279.10), which required that land-use 

 restrictions be included in all risk-based environmental remediation plans. The working 

 group also considered an extension of the de minimis exception (G.S. 143-21 5. 94E(al)) 

 to the requirement to report discharges of petroleum under G.S. 143-215.85. 



Meetings of the working group were held on 3 February 2000, 21 February 2000, 

 3 March 2000, 31 March 2000, 14 April 2000, and 8 May 2000. While the working 

 group was unable to resolve all issues related to the application of land-use restrictions to 

 cleanups of releases from USTs, the members of the working group believed that these 

 issues could be resolved through additional discussion following the 2000 Regular 

 Session of the General Assembly. The working group agreed that temporarily exempting 

 the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Program from S.L. 1999-198 would 

 facilitate those discussions. Proposed legislation to accomplish this purpose appears in 

 the recommendations section of this report as "Petroleum Discharge Amends - 1 ." 



Although the working group did not reach consensus on proposed legislation to 

 extend the de minimis exemption to the reporting requirement, the Commission Counsel 

 presented proposed legislation to accomplish this purpose. This proposed legislation was 

 modified by the ERC to narrow the exemption slightly. The modified proposal appears 

 in this report as "Petroleum Discharges/ DeMinimis Reports." 



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