Federal Energy Policy Act Reports

The federal Energy Act of 2005 added requirements for states to maintain, update, and make available to the public a record of underground storage tanks (USTs) regulated under Subtitle I. These tanks are typically underground tanks (USTs) used to store automotive fuels, used oil or petroleum products going into the retail or wholesale market. EPA requires each state that receives funding under Subtitle I to comply with this requirement. This reporting requires states, to the best of their ability, to collect information about the sources and causes of environmental discharges from UST's and provide that information as public records.

This data is collected throughout the year and posted on an Internet site annually for the federal data collection period of October 1 to September 30 (the federal fiscal year). The public record of a state must include:

• The record of compliance by underground storage tanks in the state.
• The number, sources, and causes of underground storage tank releases in the state.
• Data on the number of underground storage tank equipment failures in the state.

The data provided in the public record includes regulatory areas of both the Department of Commerce and the Department of Natural Resources. In order to maintain a public record website providing the specific yet comprehensive reporting each department has an individual web page to accommodate their data collection process. The webpages may be accessed at the following URLs:

• Commerce: http://commerce.wi.gov/php/ERS_Fed_Stats/ers_fed_stats.php
• DNR: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/rr/cleanup/energyact.htm

-- Mike Fehrenbach