Focusing its collective eye on enhanced safety, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) devoted much time in 2022 to establish a new program regulating the safety of aboveground storage vessels, especially as it pertains to workers, the environment and the community at large.
According to Earl Crochet, owner of Crochet Midstream Consulting, “a number of incidents impacting the petrochemical industry have happened over the last decade which got the attention of state legislature.”
“What they figured out,” Crochet said, “is that there are a whole bunch of tanks that aren’t registered correctly, and no one was paying attention to them.”
On June 8, 2021, the 87th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 900 to set design safety standards using industry guidance, particularly as they apply to the petrochemical industry’s aboveground storage vessels.
SB900 is intended to “promote the safety of storage vessels... by adopting requirements for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of storage vessels with the objective of protecting groundwater and surface resources in the event of accidents and natural disasters.”
Rebecca Moore, special assistant to the deputy division director of the Occupational Licensing and Registration Division with TCEQ, explained that SB900 amends the Texas Water Code by establishing the Aboveground Storage Vessel Safety (ASVS) Program, and new rules that apply to aboveground storage vessels or tanks that are located at a petrochemical plant, a petroleum refinery or a bulk storage terminal.
“These tanks are also required to have a capacity of 21,000 gallons (500 barrels) or more, store a regulated substance as defined by TWC Section 26.343 and are constructed with non-earthen materials,” Moore said. There are an estimated 36,000 regulated aboveground storage vessels (ASVs) that may be impacted by this new law.
Moore shared that TCEQ must establish the ASVS Program by September 1, 2023, at which time the new rules will be included in Title 30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 388.
TCEQ program would enhance safety of aboveground storage tanks
Earl Crochet, “the tank whisperer”
“The ASVS Program goals seek to protect groundwater and surface water in the event of an accident or natural disaster,” she said. Additionally, the changes will identify new safety elements that TCEQ must include in the ASVS Program. The new rules, she said, will also define which entities are regulated.
Moore said that public and industry input has been essential to developing the best-informed and most comprehensive new rules. TCEQ actively sought public comment through a series of virtual, informal stake- holder meetings.
Moore pointed to several pertinent upcoming deadlines of public interest, noting there will be a 30-day public comment period after TCEQ publishes the proposed rulemaking package in early February 2023. Moore said she anticipates opening the proposal to another opportunity for public comment in early March 2023. During the public comment period, one public hearing will be held in Austin, she said, with additional meetings possibly being held in the Gulf Coast area.
TCEQ aims to then present the rule pack- age for final adoption at the commissioners’ agenda meeting in August 2023. September 1, 2027 is the registration deadline. New vessels constructed after that date must certify compliance within 30 days of the start date.
The deadline for self-certification for existing vessels is 10 years later, on September 1, 2037. TCEQ will provide further details about the registration requirements after the rule is adopted.
Crochet and Moore delivered their remarks while speaking on a panel at the 15th Annual National Aboveground Storage Tank Conference and Trade Show, held in The Woodlands, Texas.
