1. A. An owner and an operator of a storage tank system, a responsible party, and a person conducting a test on a storage tank system shall report to the Department a suspected spill, release, or discharge immediately, but not later than 2 hours after the discovery, and follow the investigation and confirmation procedures in Regulation .03 of this chapter if any of the following circumstances occur:

   1. (1) There is evidence of a spill, release, or discharge of oil;
   2. (2) There is evidence of a spill, release, or discharge of a regulated substance from a UST system;
   3. (3) A storage tank system fails a precision tightness test;
   4. (4) A storage tank system has two consecutive inconclusive precision tightness test results;

   5. (5) A storage tank system is determined to have a leak or there is evidence of a spill, release, or discharge of oil at an oil storage facility or oil handling facility, such as the presence of:

      1. (a) Dissolved product in groundwater;
      2. (b) Absorbed product in soils;
      3. (c) Free product in soils, a basement, a sewer or utility line, or waters of the State; or
      4. (d) Vapors in soils, a basement, a sewer or utility line, or waters of the State;

   6. (6) There is evidence of a spill, release, or discharge at a regulated substance storage facility or in the surrounding area, such as the presence of:

      1. (a) Dissolved product in groundwater;
      2. (b) Absorbed product in soils;
      3. (c) Free product in soils, a basement, a sewer or utility line, or waters of the State; or
      4. (d) Vapors in soils, a basement, a sewer or utility line, or waters of the State;

   7. (7) Unusual operating conditions exist, such as:

      1. (a) The erratic behavior of product-dispensing equipment;
      2. (b) The sudden loss of a regulated substance from a storage tank system;
      3. (c) An unexplained presence of water in a storage tank;
      4. (d) Liquid in the interstice space of secondarily contained systems; or
      5. (e) A failed spill prevention equipment or containment sump test for tightness; and

   8. (8) Monitoring results, including investigation of an alarm, from a release detection method required under COMAR 26.10.05 indicate a spill, release, or discharge may have occurred, unless:

      1. (a) The monitoring device is found to be defective and immediately repaired, recalibrated or replaced; and
      2. (b) Additional monitoring does not confirm the initial result.

2. B. Additional Reporting Circumstances.

   1. (1) For the purposes of this section, evidence of a spill, release, or discharge include:

      1. (a) The visual detection of free product; or
      2. (b) An analytical laboratory report that shows a detection of a petroleum constituent in a soil, groundwater, drinking water, or soil vapor sample at a concentration equal to or exceeding a cleanup standard or action level published by the Department for the petroleum constituent and media type.

   2. (2) If evidence of a spill, release, or discharge is discovered during an environmental assessment conducted on a property as part of a due diligence investigation in support of a property transaction or a loan refinancing, the person conducting the environmental assessment and the owner of the property shall report the suspected spill, release, or discharge to the Department:

      1. (a) Immediately, but not later than 2 hours after the visual detection of free product; or
      2. (b) Within 48 hours of receiving an analytical laboratory report described under §B(1) of this regulation.
   3. (3) The person performing an environmental assessment on a property or the owner of the property may not be considered a person responsible for the discharge solely as a result of discovering evidence of a spill, release, or discharge or reporting a suspected spill, release, or discharge to the Department in compliance with §B(1) of this regulation, unless the person performing the environmental assessment or the property owner meets the criteria for a person responsible for the discharge under COMAR 26.10.01.02B.

Authority: Environment Article, §§4-401, 4-402, 4-405, 4-407, 4-408, 4-410—4-411.1, 4-417, and 7-201 et seq., Annotated Code of Maryland

Effective date: February 4, 1991 (18:2 Md. R. 151)

Chapter revised effective November 4, 1996 (23:22 Md. R. 1498)

Regulation .03C amended effective February 18, 2002 (29:3 Md. R. 224); January 16, 2006 (33:1 Md. R. 40)

Regulations .01—.04 repealed and new Regulations .01—.04 adopted effective June 13, 2022 (49:12 Md. R. 642)