§ 282.68 Louisiana State-Administered Program.

(a) History of the approval of Louisiana's program. The State of Louisiana is approved to administer and enforce an underground storage tank program in lieu of the Federal program under subtitle I of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), as amended, 42 U.S.C. 6991 et seq. The State's program, as administered by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, was approved by EPA pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 6991c and part 281 of this chapter. EPA published the notice of final determination approving the Louisiana underground storage tank base program effective on September 4, 1992. A subsequent program revision application was approved effective on August 3, 2020.

(b) Enforcement authority. Louisiana has primary responsibility for administering and enforcing its federally approved underground storage tank program. However, EPA retains the authority to exercise its corrective action, inspection, and enforcement authorities under sections 9003(h), 9005 and 9006 of subtitle I of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 6991b(h), 6991d and 6991e, as well as under any other applicable statutory and regulatory provisions.

(c) Retaining program approval. To retain program approval, Louisiana must revise its approved program to adopt new changes to the Federal subtitle I program which make it more stringent, in accordance with section 9004 of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 6991c, and 40 CFR part 281, subpart E. If Louisiana obtains approval for the revised requirements pursuant to section 9004 of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. 6991c, the newly approved statutory and regulatory provisions will be added to this subpart and notice of any change will be published in the Federal Register.

(d) Final program approval. Louisiana has final approval for the following elements of its program application originally submitted to EPA and approved effective September 4, 1992, and the program revision application approved by EPA effective on August 3, 2020.