As used in this article, unless the context otherwise
requires:
(1) Abandoned tank means an underground or aboveground petroleum
storage tank that the current tank owner or operator or current property owner did
not install, has never operated or leased to another for operation, and had no reason
to know was present on the site at the time of site acquisition.
(2) (a) Aboveground storage tank means any one or a combination of
containers, vessels, and enclosures, including structures and appurtenances
connected to them, constructed of nonearthen materials, including but not limited
to concrete, steel, or plastic, which provide structural support, used to contain or
dispense fuel products and the volume of which, including the pipes connected
thereto, is ninety percent or more above the surface of the ground.
(b) Aboveground storage tank does not include:
(I) A wastewater treatment tank system that is part of a wastewater
treatment facility;
(II) Equipment or machinery that contains regulated substances for
operational purposes;
(III) (A) Farm and residential tanks or tanks used for horticultural or
floricultural operations.
(B) Nothing in sub-subparagraph (A) of this subparagraph (III), as amended
by House Bill 05-1180, as enacted at the first regular session of the sixty-fifth
general assembly, shall be construed as changing the property tax classification of
property owned by a horticultural or floricultural operation.
(IV) Aboveground storage tanks located at natural gas pipeline facilities that
are regulated under state or federal natural gas pipeline acts;
(V) Aboveground storage tanks associated with natural gas liquids
separation, gathering, and production;
(VI) Aboveground storage tanks associated with crude oil production,
storage, and gathering;
(VII) Aboveground storage tanks at transportation-related facilities
regulated by the federal department of transportation;
(VIII) Aboveground storage tanks used to store heating oil for consumptive
use on the premises where stored;
(IX) Aboveground storage tanks used to store flammable and combustible
liquids at mining facilities and construction and earthmoving projects, including
gravel pits, quarries, and borrow pits where, in the opinion of the director of the
division of oil and public safety, tight control by the owner or contractor and
isolation from other structures make it unnecessary to meet the requirements of
this article;
(X) Any other aboveground tank excluded by regulation.
(2.5) Alternative fuel means a motor fuel that combines petroleum-based
fuel products with renewable fuels.
(3) Closure means the abandonment of an underground storage tank in
place or the removal and disposal of an underground storage tank.
(4) Department means the department of labor and employment, created
in section 24-1-121, C.R.S.
(5) Designee means a qualified municipality, city, home rule city, city and
county, county, fire protection district, or any other political subdivision of the state,
including a county or district public health agency created pursuant to section 25-1-506, C.R.S., which county or district public health agency is acting under
agreement or contract with the department for the implementation of the
provisions of this article.
(5.5) Fee lands means land owned in fee simple within the exterior
boundaries of the Southern Ute Indian reservations in Colorado. Fee land does not
mean land owned by an Indian tribe or the federal government or held in trust by
the federal government for the use or benefit of an Indian tribe or its members.
(6) Fuel products means all gasoline, aviation gasoline, diesel, aviation
turbine fuel, jet fuel, fuel oil, biodiesel, biodiesel blends, kerosene, all alcohol
blended fuels, gas or gaseous compounds, and other volatile, flammable, or
combustible liquids, produced, compounded, and offered for sale or used for the
purpose of generating heat, light, or power in internal combustion engines or fuel
cells, for cleaning or for any other similar usage.
(7) Municipality means any city or any town operating under general or
special laws of the state of Colorado or any home rule city or town, the charter or
ordinances of which contain no provisions inconsistent with the provisions of part 3
of this article.
(8) Operator means any person in control of, or having responsibility for,
the operation of an underground or aboveground storage tank.
(9) Orphan tank means an underground storage tank which is:
(a) Owned or operated by an unidentified owner as defined in this article; or
(b) No longer in use and was not closed in accordance with the procedures
required by this article and the property has changed ownership prior to December
22, 1988, and such property is no longer used to dispense fuels.
(10) (a) Owner means:
(I) In the case of an underground storage tank in use on or after November 8,
1984, or brought into use after that date, any person who owns an underground
storage tank used for the storage, use, or dispensing of regulated substances;
(II) In the case of an underground storage tank in use before November 8,
1984, but no longer in use on or after November 8, 1984, any person who owned
such tank immediately before the discontinuation of its use; or
(III) Any person who owns an aboveground storage tank.
(b) For purposes of corrective action for petroleum releases, the term
owner does not include any person who, without participating in the management
of an underground storage tank and otherwise not engaged in petroleum
production, refining, and marketing, holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect a
security interest in or lien on the tank or the property where the tank is located.
(11) Person means any individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company,
corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association,
commission, municipality, state, county, city and county, political subdivision of a
state, interstate body, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, or the
government of the United States.
(12) Property owner means a person having a legal or equitable interest in
real or personal property that is subject to this article.
(13) Regulated substance means:
(a) Any substance defined in section 101 (14) of the federal Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended,
but not including any substance regulated as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of
Title II of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as
amended;
(b) Petroleum, including crude oil, and crude oil or any fraction thereof that is
liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure (60 degrees Fahrenheit
and 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute);
(c) Alternative fuel; or
(d) Renewable fuel.
(14) Release means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping,
leaching, or disposing of a regulated substance from an underground storage tank
into groundwater, surface water, or subsurface soils.
(14.5) Renewable fuel means a motor vehicle fuel that is produced from
plant or animal products or wastes, as opposed to fossil fuel sources.
(15) Reportable quantities means quantities of a released regulated
substance which equal or exceed the reportable quantity under the federal
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of
1980, as amended, and petroleum products in quantities of twenty-five gallons or
more.
(16) Tank means a stationary device designed to contain an accumulation
of a regulated substance, constructed primarily of nonearthen materials which
provide structural support including, but not limited to, wood, concrete, steel, or
plastic.
(17) (a) Underground storage tank means any one or combination of tanks,
including underground pipes connected thereto, except those identified in
paragraph (b) of this subsection (17), that is used to contain an accumulation of
regulated substances and the volume of which, including the volume of
underground pipes connected thereto, is ten percent or more beneath the surface
of the ground.
(b) Underground storage tank does not include:
(I) Any farm or residential tank with a capacity of one thousand one hundred
gallons or less used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes;
(II) Any tank used for storing heating oil for consumptive use on the premises
where stored;
(III) Any septic tank;
(IV) Any pipeline facility, including its gathering lines, regulated under the
federal Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, as amended, or the federal
Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, as amended, or regulated under
Colorado law if such facility is an intrastate facility;
(V) Any surface impoundment, pit, pond, lagoon, or landfill;
(VI) Any storm-water or wastewater collection system;
(VII) Any flow-through process tank;
(VIII) Any liquid trap or associated gathering lines directly related to oil or
gas production and gathering operations;
(IX) Any storage tank situated in an underground area, such as a basement,
cellar, mine-working, drift, shaft, or tunnel area, if the tank is situated upon or
above the surface of the floor;
(X) Any pipes connected to any tank described in subparagraphs (I) to (IX) of
this paragraph (b); or
(XI) Any other underground tank excluded by regulation.
(18) Upgrade means the addition or retrofit of some systems such as
cathodic protection, lining, modification of the system piping, or spill and overfill
controls to improve the ability of a petroleum storage tank system to prevent the
release of product.