New bills slash MUSTA fund deductibles

House Bill 5599 and Senate Bill 717 have just been signed by Governor Snyder today!  These bills will positively impact owners/operators (O/O) of Leaking UST sites.

House Bill 5599

HB5599 will amend Part 215 (MUSTA) – Michigan’s LUST cleanup law has been in effect for the last two years.  The MUSTA fund pays up to $1 million to cleanup a LUST site.  However, the number of claims approved by MUSTA is only 29 – less than projected by the MUSTA Authority.  The relatively high deductible to access MUSTA is thought to be a reason for the low number of applicants.

HB5599 remedies this by: 

  • Eliminating the confusing “deductible buy down” process for O/O of fewer than eight USTs and reducing the deductible amount from $15,000 per claim to $2,000 per claim*. 
  • Reducing the deductible amount from $50,000 per claim to $10,000 per claim for the O/O of eight or more USTs 

For those already in the MUSTA fund, HB5599 contains language making the changes to the deductible retroactive (i.e. a large tank owner who has already paid the $50k deductible will be refunded $40k).

Senate Bill 717

SB717 amends Part 213 (the law that regulates leaking USTs). A main provision of this bill is simplifying the process to leave contamination in local right of ways.

Many gas stations are located on corner lots and may have contamination that has migrated beneath a local right of ways or ROWs (for example, a highway, public footpath or railway). This has proven to be an impediment to some closures since there is no consistent mechanism to approve leaving contamination in the ROW when it is not impacting anyone. SB717 provides a simplified, consistent method to accomplish closures.

If you have any questions about the fund or want to discuss new options for closure now available, please feel free to contact Pete Bosanic P.E., Mike Kulka, P.E., or any of our UST specialists at 800.313.2966.

News Details
Date

May 24, 2017

Tags

Related Services