Overview
Specific rules governing the permanent closure of a regulated AST is promulgated in
WV State Rule Title 47 Series 63. Please refer to Subsection 11.3 - Permanent Closure of Regulated AST Systems.
An owner or operator who plans to permanently close an AST system must notify the WVDEP Secretary, in writing, and provide a written closure plan at least 30 days prior to beginning the closure, unless the action is in response to a corrective action ordered by the Secretary.
To permanently close a regulated AST system, the owner or operator must empty and clean the AST, piping, and any associated equipment by removing all liquids and accumulated residues. The Tanks Program has developed guidance, a closure plan form, a closure report form, and analytical spreadsheets to assist the regulated community in performing tank closures. Due to the prevalence of petroleum related ASTs, the closure guidance documents were developed around those types of ASTs. However, the closure guidance, the closure plan, and closure report can and must be utilized for all ASTs. The Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 analytical spreadsheets shall be used where applicable; however, the constituents on the spreadsheets are limited. Therefore, until such time as DEP develops additional analytical tables, the owner/operator performs the closure should create their own table for the closure report if a DEP approved table is not available. The table at a minimum must show the constituent sampled, the units for the analytical data, the standard to which the data is being compared, the sample name, sample date, sample depth, and the concentration of the sample.
See Appendix B and Appendix D of the Corrective Action Guidance Document (CAGD) for forms, analytical tables, and the closure guidance memo for AST closures.
Required Documents
You will need the following documents which are available from the
Corrective Action Guidance Document (CAGD) page:
- Appendix D-1 Closure Form Summary
- Appendix D-5 AST/LAST Closure Guidance Memo
- Appendix D-6 AST Closure Plan Template
- Appendix D-6.1 AST Closure Plan Spreadsheet
- Appendix D-7 AST Closure Report
- Appendix B-4 Tier 1 Spreadsheet
- Appendix B-5 Tier 2 Spreadsheet
- Appendix B-6 Tier 3 Spreadsheet
Final Closure Report
Once the closure activities are completed, a final closure report must be submitted to WVDEP at dep.ast@wv.gov using the WVDEP approved closure report form. Upon receipt of the final closure report, WVDEP will update the status of the closed tanks to permanently out of service (POS).
ASTs that have underwent permanent closure may be brought back into service; however, when these tanks are brought back into service it will be considered a “new install”. All requirements for new installs will apply to permanently out of service (POS) tanks being brought back into service.