WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday published in the Federal Register several minor amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants that affect retail facilities.

The new amendments update a 2008 rule requiring specific vapor controls during the refilling of gasoline storage tanks. Under the original rule, all locations selling more than 10,000 gallons per months were required to submit basic facility information to EPA. Additionally, facilities had to meet various criteria, such as leak checks, the use of submerged fill pipes, and vapor balancing between the storage tank and the tank truck. These criteria depend upon how the facilities are legally classified.

The new amendments:

• Allow a facility whose design capacity is above a 20,000-gallon-per-day bulk terminal threshold, but whose actual throughput is always below the threshold, to be subject to the bulk gasoline plant standards rather than the bulk gasoline terminal standards.
• Revise the definition of "gasoline storage tank" to exclude sumps, including butane blending sample recovery tanks (SRT), and oil/water separators, from the definition.
• Require that facilities include in their Notice of Compliance Status (NOCS) report whether the facilities' gasoline throughput is determined based on the volume of gasoline loaded into all gasoline storage tanks, or on the volume of gasoline dispensed from all gasoline storage tanks.