The Pennsylvania Oil Tank Cleanup Reimbursement

The Underground Heating Oil Tank Cleanup Reimbursement Program is run by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. It applies to underground heating oil tanks with a capacity of 3,000 gallons or less that stored fuel used for heating on the premises, which covers every standard residential 275, 330 and 550 gallon tank in Philadelphia.

The tank owner pays the first $1,000 of eligible costs. Above that, the owner can be reimbursed for eligible costs paid, up to a maximum of $4,000. Where an owner has more than one tank, per-tank limits apply.

Are you, or were you, the tank owner. Was the heating oil tank an underground, buried tank. Was the capacity 3,000 gallons or less. Did the tank store fuel used for heating on the premises. Every one of those has to be yes.

Then the release itself. There must have been a release of heating oil to the environment from the tank, from its lines or pipes, or through a spill or an overfill. And it must have occurred, or been discovered, on or after January 30, 1998. That date is the hard edge of the program and it is why documenting when a leak was discovered matters.

Finally, the environmental cleanup has to be complete or in progress. This reimburses work, not intentions.

Applications are submitted electronically through the Pennsylvania Electronic Single Application system, with itemized invoices and proof of payment.

The practical consequence is that the invoicing has to be right from the beginning. A single lump-sum invoice reading "tank work" is a weaker claim than an itemized one separating excavation, disposal, laboratory analysis and restoration, and it is far easier to itemize at the time than to reconstruct afterwards. Ask for it itemized before the work starts.

DEP can be reached on 717-787-0886 or at tankcleanup@pa.gov for questions about the program.

Pennsylvania also operates the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund, administered through the Insurance Department. It has run a voluntary heating oil tank program since 1995, and it is the fund people find first because it is the bigger and better-known one.

It does not apply to a normal residential tank. The USTIF voluntary heating oil program is for nonregulated underground heating oil tanks with a capacity of 3,000 gallons or greater. A 275 gallon tank in a Philadelphia backyard falls under the DEP reimbursement program described above, not USTIF.

Where USTIF does apply, its terms are different in kind: claims must be reported within 60 days after knowledge of a potential claim or coverage is denied, and indemnification is subject to a limit of $1.5 million per tank per occurrence. Those numbers get quoted at homeowners with 275 gallon tanks fairly regularly, and they are not the numbers that apply to them.

It cannot tell you whether your particular claim will be approved. Eligibility turns on facts about your tank, your release and your evidence, and the determination is DEP's.

What it can do is stop you from missing the program entirely, which is the common outcome, and stop you from chasing the wrong fund. If your tank leaked and you paid to clean it up, the remediation page covers what the cleanup involves and this program is the thing to raise with whoever is invoicing you for it.