Sec. 26.10.04.02. Operation and Maintenance of Corrosion Protection

A. All owners and operators of steel UST systems with corrosion protection shall comply with the requirements of this regulation to ensure that releases due to corrosion are prevented for as long as the UST system is used to store regulated substances.

B. All corrosion protection systems shall be operated and maintained to continuously provide corrosion protection to the metal components of that portion of the tank and piping that is in contact with the ground.

C. An underground storage system protected by impressed current systems shall be designed so that the impressed current source cannot be de-energized at any time, except to perform service work on the storage system or the impressed current cathodic protection system.

D. All UST systems equipped with cathodic protection systems shall be inspected for proper operation by a qualified cathodic protection tester in accordance with the following requirements:

(1) All field-installed cathodic protection systems shall be tested within 6 months of installation and at least every year after that;

(2) All factory-installed cathodic protection systems shall be tested within 6 months of installation and at least once every 3 years after that; and

(3) The criteria that are used to determine that cathodic protection is adequate as required by this section shall be in accordance with a code of practice developed by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers.

E. If a qualified tester determines that the cathodic protection is inadequate, repairs shall be made to the cathodic protection system within 60 days of the test measurement.

F. Time of Inspection.

(1) UST systems with impressed current cathodic protection systems shall:

(a) Be inspected every 60 days to ensure that the equipment is functioning properly; and

(b) Have a complete assessment of the impressed current system performed by a corrosion expert when the impressed current system reaches 5 years of age and every 5 years thereafter.

(2) The corrosion expert shall follow guidance as established by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in performing the assessment, under §F(1)(b) of this regulation.

G. For UST systems using cathodic protection, records of the operation of the cathodic protection shall be maintained in accordance with Regulation .05 of this chapter and shall demonstrate compliance with the performance standards in this regulation. These records shall include the following:

(1) The results of the last three inspections and the last assessment required in §F of this regulation; and

(2) The results of testing from the last two inspections required in §D of this regulation.