(a)  The purpose of the fund shall be to facilitate the clean-up of releases from leaking underground storage tanks, underground storage tank systems, including those located on sites in order to protect the environment, including drinking water supplies and public health.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-5

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the Rhode Island department of environmental management. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Eligible costs: means costs, expenses, and other obligations as incurred by a responsible party for site investigation, site remediation, or other corrective action activities ordered or directed, and approved, by the department or performed by the responsible party and not specifically identified by the department as ineligible. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Fund: means the Rhode Island underground storage tank financial responsibility fund established herein. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Operator: means any person in control of, or having the responsibility for, the daily operation of an underground storage tank system. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Owner: means any person, corporation, group, or other entity who or that holds exclusive or joint title to, or lawful possession of, a facility or part of a facility. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, injecting, emitting, escaping, leaching, discharging, or disposing of any material stored in an underground storage tank system subject to the regulations into groundwater, surface water, soil, air, or any other environmental media. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Responsible party: means the person or persons liable for release of petroleum or the remediation of a release. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3
  • Underground storage tank system: means any one or more underground tanks, and their associated components, including piping, used to contain, transport, or store petroleum product or hazardous material whose volume is ten percent (10%) or more beneath the surface of the ground. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-12.9-3

(b)  The fund shall provide reimbursement to responsible parties for the eligible costs incurred by them as a result of releases of certain petroleum from underground storage tanks or underground storage tank systems as provided herein. Monies in the fund shall be dispensed only upon the order of the department for the following purposes:

(1)  The fund shall pay not more than one million dollars ($1,000,000) per incident, and up to two million dollars ($2,000,000) in the aggregate, for damages of eligible costs, as defined in regulations promulgated hereunder and, as further defined in § 46-12.9-3, excluding legal costs and expenses, incurred by a responsible party as a result of a release of petroleum from an underground storage tank or underground storage tank system; provided, however, that a responsible party may be responsible for the first twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) of said eligible costs;

(2)  Reimbursement for any third-party claim including, but not limited to, claims for bodily injury, property damage, and damage to natural resources that are asserted against a responsible party and that have arisen as a result of a release of petroleum from an underground storage tank or underground storage tank system, in an amount not to exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000) for each release as set forth in subsection (b)(1); provided, that such claims are found by the department to be justified, reasonable, related to the release of petroleum, and not excessive or spurious in nature;

(3)  Costs incurred by the department in carrying out the investigative, remedial, and corrective action activities at sites of a petroleum release associated with an underground storage tank or underground storage tank system where the responsible party fails to comply with an order of the department to undertake such activities. In the event of such failure or documented inability to comply, the department may access the fund to perform the ordered work and may proceed to recover from the responsible party, on behalf of the fund, any amount expended from the fund by the department;

(4)  Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to prevent subrogation by the state of Rhode Island against any responsible party, other than the owner and/or operator, for all sums of money that the fund shall be obligated to pay hereunder, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of litigation and such right of subrogation is hereby created; and

(5)  Eligible costs incurred by the department to support the fund, including, but not limited to, all personnel support to process and review claims in order to formulate recommendations for reimbursement for consideration; provided, however, that no more than five hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($550,000) shall be dispensed from the fund for administrative purposes during any fiscal year. The department shall directly access the fund, pursuant to the limits set forth in subsection (b)(1) of this section, to pay for such expenses.

(6)  [Deleted by P.L. 2016, ch. 148, § 1 and P.L. 2016, ch. 160, § 1].

History of Section.
P.L. 1994, ch. 144, § 1; P.L. 1997, ch. 30, art. 39, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 31, art. 23, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 114, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 328, § 1; P.L. 2002, ch. 297, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 246, art. 27, § 3; P.L. 2007, ch. 340, § 45; P.L. 2008, ch. 475, § 30; P.L. 2016, ch. 148, § 1; P.L. 2016, ch. 160, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 80, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 92, § 1; P.L. 2023, ch. 79, art. 3, § 11, effective June 16, 2023.