Are residential underground heating oil tanks regulated by the law?
A3. If you have an underground home heating oil tank installed at a residential property, your tank is exempt from Federal Regulations. Should a home heating oil tank release oil into the environment, then at that point the owner of the tank is no longer exempt from the provisions of environmental regulation governing uncontrolled discharges or releases into the environment. At the time it is discovered that an oil tank has leaked, the property owner would need to take reasonable measurers to address the source of the leak/spill and prevent it from spreading and the incident reported to the appropriate agency. In New Jersey the governing agency is the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, (NJDEP) not the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) which is a Federal agency and does not have immediate jurisdiction for these types of incidents. If a heating oil discharge has occurred at your home, regardless of the quantity, the owner is required to report the leak to the New Jer
