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Minutes for SB286 - Committee on Agriculture
Short Title
Amending the Kansas storage tank act by increasing the maximum liability of and extending the sunset of the aboveground fund and the underground fund.
Minutes Content for Thu, Mar 12, 2020
Chair Highland opened the hearing on SB286 at 3:40pm.
Kyle Hamilton, Assistant Revisor, Office of The Revisor of Statutes, provided an overview of SB286 and the statutes that it affects. There is a Fiscal Note for SB286.
PROPONENTS:
Bob Jurgens, Director, Bureau of Environmental Remediation, Kansas Department of Health & Environment, appeared before the Committee in support of SB286. (Attachment 7) There are currently approximately 1,200 sites in the two storage tank clean-up programs with an additional 25+ sites being added annually. The ten-year extension of the sunset date is needed to address the remaining and future contaminated sites.
An increase from $1 million to $2 million for the maximum allowable reimbursement cost is needed due to increasing lifetime project costs of remedial system design, installation, operation and maintenance. Many sites that were easier to clean-up have already been addressed. Of the sites that remain, much of the soil and groundwater contamination is in complex geology, which increases the overall cost of a site clean-up. These amendments will have a positive impact by providing funds to reimburse future cleanup activities at petroleum contaminated sites.
Mr Jurgens responded to questions from the Committee.
Thomas Palace, Executive Director, Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association (PMCSA), appeared before the Committee in support of SB286. (Attachment 8) The Kansas Underground and Aboveground Storage Tank Fund is extremely important to Kansas motor fuel distributors and retailers. The fund offers a pollution insurance policy that is vital to the petroleum industry due to pollution exclusions that are in most, if not all, insurance policies. PMCSA enjoys a close working relationship with KDHE and we both have the same goal in mind--keeping Kansas environmentally safe.
Mr Palace stood for questions from the Committee.
Written only testimony in support of SB286 was received from:
- Randy Stookey, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, Kansas Grain and Feed Association, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association, and Renew Kansas Biofuels Association (Attachment 9)
- Shahira Stafford, Kansas Cooperative Council (Attachment 10)
- Sheila Lowrie, Corporate Affairs Manager, Dillons Stores (Attachment 11)
There were no opponents/neutrals of SB286.
The hearing on SB286 was closed at 3:56pm.
