| SIR and ATG Guidance The Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS) receives many
questions regarding interpretation of storage tank regulations governing leak
detection and release reporting. Many
of the questions deal with automatic tank gauges (ATGs) and statistical
inventory reconciliation (SIR). For
this reason, OPS has developed guidance documents for both methods of leak
detection.
The purpose of a guidance
document is to explain what is not spelled out in regulations or to describe in
more understandable language what is already stated in regulations.
For example, the guidance documents explain what types of SIR and ATG
readings beyond “fail” need to be reported to OPS as a suspected release.
The SIR
guidance document explains how this method works and how it complies with
release detection regulations. The
document offers suggestions to the tank owner/operator on how to interpret the
SIR vendor’s monthly report and how to react to it.
The ATG
guidance document reviews how ATGs work and how they comply with release
detection regulations. OPS
recommends that tank owners/operators become knowledgeable of the make and
models of their ATGs in order to understand their capabilities and to what
extent they fulfill release detection requirements.
These guidance documents
also explain the significance of the “95 and 5” probability standard and the
7-day suspected release investigation requirement.
If you have additional questions about the
guidance documents or need to report a suspected or confirmed release, please
call the OPS technical assistance line at 303-318-8547. |
