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38 SEPTEMBER 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com EPA announced the results of its study of enhanced corrosion in storage systems with ultra-low sulfur diesel. Here is an excerpt from the executive summary: This research focused on better understanding a type of rapid and severe corrosion of metal components in underground storage tanks (USTs) storing diesel fuel. UST owners first began reporting this corrosion to UST industry servicing compa- nies in 2007. Several changes to the national fuel supply and fuel storage practices have occurred since the mid-2000s. To address the potential for corrosion problems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Underground Storage Tanks began working on this research in 2014 to understand how serious and widespread the metal corrosion problem could be. In addition, to help identify the cause or solutions, we wanted to identify predictive factors between UST systems with corrosion issues and UST systems relatively free of the problem. EPA's objective for the research was to develop a better understanding of potential risks to human health and the environment caused by the evolving corrosion problem in USTs storing diesel fuel. In 2014, EPA held discussions with UST industry experts and worked collaboratively to develop field-based research that would further the understanding of corrosion inside USTs storing diesel. EPA designed our research to examine many factors on a diverse population of 42 UST systems in order to find potential pre- dictive factors among them. We thought any predictive factors identified in our research would help focus the search of potential causes for the next phase of follow-on research. In January and February 2015, EPA conducted on-site inspec- tions of 42 diverse, operating UST systems at 40 sites across the country. Of these UST systems, 24 had fiberglass tanks, and 18 had steel tanks. Field teams documented the conditions of the UST systems with in-tank video cameras and photos so they could later assign a category of corrosion coverage to each system. The field teams also collected samples of vapor, fuel, and aqueous phase (also known as water bottom), if present, from each of the tanks. Field teams used a detailed questionnaire to gather information from each owner about the storage history, operation, and main- tenance practices of each UST system. EPA chemically analyzed the vapor, fuel, and aqueous phase samples. Three assessors reviewed the videos of each UST and categorized the USTs by the extent of the corrosion judged to be present: minimal, moderate, or severe. In an attempt to identify corrosion predicting factors among UST systems experiencing either minimal corrosion or severe corrosion, we then statistically evaluated the analytical results and responses from the question- naires against the corrosion categories. The major finding from our research is that moderate or severe corrosion on metal components in UST systems storing diesel fuel in the United States could be a very common occurrence. Observations suggest that corrosion may be commonly severe on metal surfaces in the upper vapor space of UST systems, an area that before 2007 was not known to be prone to corrosion. Furthermore, it appears many owners may not be aware of the corrosion nor are they aware that corrosion, which could affect the operability of their UST systems, could already be at an advanced stage. We observed 83 percent of the inspected tanks had moder- ate or severe metal corrosion. Prior to our research inspections, EPA: CORROSION IN UST SYSTEMS COULD BE COMMON EPA reports that 83 percent of USTs studied exhibited moderate or severe corrosion, but less than 25 percent of owners were aware of it