BILL NUMBER: S1704

SPONSOR: HARCKHAM
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
reduction of air pollution from petroleum bulk storage facilities

 
PURPOSE:

Relates to the reduction of air pollution from petroleum bulk storage
facilities.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the environmental conservation law to establish the
definitions of shell color, roof color, and tank in relation to petrole-
um bulk storage facilities. A tank must have shell and roof colors that
limit volatile emissions.

Section 2 states the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Petroleum bulk storage facilities around New York State contribute
significantly to hazardous air pollution. Many of these facilities are
near residential communities, including a number of low income and
minority communities.

Petroleum bulk storage tanks emit hazardous air pollutants (1), includ-
ing benzene, a known human carcinogen, (2) through evaporation loss.
Evaporation loss occurs when molecules from a stored liquid form a vapor
in the space above the liquid and escape into the atmosphere.(3) The
rate of evaporation loss increases in the presence of two factors: heat
and vapor pressure.(4)

The external paint color of a petroleum bulk storage tank significantly
affects the temperature of the tank's metal.(5) Dark-colored paints have
high absorptivity rates and cause metal tanks to retain heat from
sunlight whereas white, light-colored, and reflective paints with low
absorptivity rates reduce tank heating by minimizing sunlight absorp-
tion.(6) Studies have shown a nearly 300% decrease in evaporation losses
where tanks are painted with a minimally absorptive paint color.(7)

In 2022, Chapter 505 New York State required all above-ground petroleum
storage tanks be painted white or beige to minimize sunlight absorption
and, ultimately, the emission of hazardous air pollutants.

This legislation allows room for other light colors that limit volatile
emissions in the same levels of white or beige.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022-2024: S7565B/A7818 - Passed Senate/Died in Ways & Means

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
1 "Hazardous air pollutants" as used herein includes the chemicals list-
ed in the "Clean Air Act", 42 U.S.C.S. § 7412(b) (1).
2 Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "Facts about Benzene",
NATIONAL CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, April 4, 2018.
3 TI-3 Petroleum Committee, Air Pollution Control Association, Control
of Atmospheric Emissions From Petroleum Storage Tanks, 21 J. AIR
POLLUTION CONTROL ASS'N 260, 260 (1971); see also Office of the Federal
Register, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants:
Miscellaneous Coating Manufacturing Residual Risk and Technology Review,
84 F.R. 46419, 46627 (2019).
4 TI-3 Petroleum Committee, supra note 1 at 260.
5 Farzaneh-Gord, Nabati, Saadat-Targhi, Rasekh & Niazmand, Selecting
best painting colour for crude oil storage tanks' exterior surface, 23
INT'L J. OIL, GAS & COAL TECH at Abstract (2020).
6 Tavakoli & Baktash, Numerical Analysis for Effect of Envelop Color of
Oil Tank Storage with Floating Roof, 2 INT'L J. MODERN ENG. RES.  3773,
3781 (2012). This study compared two paint colors: one with an absorp-
tivity rate of 0.9, the other with an absorptivity rate of 0.1.  Id.;
see also FarzanehGord, supra note 4.