Technical Officer’s Report February 2012

Defra Stakeholders Meeting

The guidance on implementation of EU Directive on Stage 2 was eventually signed off at the meeting and is now published. This was a good outcome that protects small and vulnerable sites as well as the pump refurbishment market.

It was agreed that the labelling requirements of the Directive could be as simple as a notice somewhere on site, such as at the point of sale, rather than on individual dispensers.

It was further agreed that late subsistence payment charges could be recovered by adding to the next years invoice, but on industry insistence, agreed that this should be notified to the site operator at the time the invoice was due.

Secretary of States guidance PG 1/14 is being reviewed and will be changed to incorporate the requirements of the EU Directive on Stage II. The first draft is expected by the end of February. PEIMF members will get opportunity to comment before it is eventually published at the end of June.

Defra have produced a draft leaflet for employers to give to their employees regarding environmental responsibilities. This can be customised by companies for their own purposes and is available from Defra or could be posted on the PEIMF website.

Environment Agency

The consultation on PPG 27 has been sent to members and at least one PEIMF member has sent comments. GP4 Part3 revision has now been published in draft and is available for members to comment on.

PELG (Petroleum Enforcement Liaison Group)

PELG has for the last year and a half been sponsored by CFOA (Chief Fire Officers Association) but as from February 2012 this role is to be taken over by the Energy Institute, who had offered to host meetings and provide website facilities with free downloads of PELG guidance. This change in sponsorship makes a good fit, as PELG is mostly dealing with technical issues from an enforcement perspective.

National Measurement Office (NMO)

The Measuring Instruments Directive (MID) is well into its transitional period, which ends in 2016. At a recent meeting concerns were expressed that the retail industry was still not fully informed about the implications of this.

Other concerns were noted about the lack of awareness of the need to re-verify after a new POS had been fitted and frequently it was discovered that such changes had been made without re-verification.

Retailer representatives and TSO representatives raised concerns about dispensers that had been factory verified and installed without further checks being made, acknowledging that the law permitted this. Two manufacturers confirmed that they were now re-calibrating where necessary and a third stated that whilst they checked the meter after installation, it would only be re-calibrated if it had fallen outside its maximum permissible errors.

Retail operators, on installing new dispensers, were recommended to insist on a re-verification, if necessary at their own expense, to ensure that their dispensers were operating as accurately as possible. This followed reports that some retailers had suffered high losses from newly installed dispensers, before the error was discovered through routine stock reconciliation.

Service Station Panel

A watch is being kept on the effect of ethanol on hose couplings, swivels and nozzles, following a growing number of reports of leaks occurring believed to be from exposure to ethanol. Site owners are being advised to check the hydraulics on a regular basis.

The guidance for the storage and maintenance of B5 and E5 fuels is being reviewed for suitability for the higher percentage bio-fuels.

Technical Officer’s Report September 2011

EU Directive on Stage II PVR

The directive will become law on 1st January 2012, when all new sites with a projected volume in excess of 500,000 litres will have to comply or where it is under living accommodation, that volume is reduced to 100,000 litres.

All existing sites with a volume throughput in excess of 3 million litres must have PVRII installed by 31st December 2018. The remaining sites are unaffected unless undertaking major refurbishment.

Defra has produced draft guidance for Local Authorities, which seeks to define major refurbishment. Both PEIMF and RMI have been instrumental in achieving a satisfactory outcome for operators of small sites and contractors who carry out dispenser refurbishment.

Defra recommends that the following should not be regarded as major refurbishment.

1. i) repair of petroleum pipes, without replacing an entire pipe
2. ii) replacement of one or more of the petrol dispensers without any other works
3. iii) replacement of all the dispensers on a small petrol station with second-hand dispensers, which do not have a PVRII capability
4. iv) replacement of part of the petroleum pipework on a site without any other works;

Defra is not aware of any circumstances where changing all the petroleum pipework and replacing all the dispensers with new ones would not constitute a major refurbishment.

Secretary of States guidance PG1/14 is due to be reviewed this year and that review has been delayed to take account of the requirement of the Directive. PEIMF members are requested to send any comments on matters that should be changed in this review.

This is a good outcome for PEIMF, who through their involvement have protected the used dispenser refurbishment market.

Scottish Environmental Protection Agency

SEPA is currently consulting on its proposals for introducing Stage II PVR into Scotland. Instead of prescriptive permit conditions, SEPA is proposing the introduction of Standard Rules. Site operators would be expected to follow the technical measures outlined in PG1/14. There is a delay to the introduction of PVRII for two months until the end of February 2012.

Environment Agency Guidance

The Agency is about to republish PPG7, ‘The Safe operation of Refuelling Facilities.’ PEIMF comments have been taken into account in the final draft, which is expected to be published in the next few weeks.

PPG 27 ‘Installation, Decommissioning and Removal of Underground Storage Tanks.’ is about to be reviewed and comments are invited from PEIMF members. Copies of PPG 27 are available from the Agency website or from Technical Adviser Phil Monger.

Technical Officer’s Report June 2011

EU Directive Stage2 PVR

Defra recently published its consultation in the transposition of the EU Directive on Stage2 PVR. Whilst it will have little impact over and above the UK National legislation, it will potentially have serious implications for the upgrading of small and particularly rural sites. Under the UK legislation all sites with a turnover of petroleum spirit in excess of 3.5 million litres must currently have a Stage2 system in operation. Under the EU Directive this threshold is reduced to 3 million
litres for existing sites, but is not required until 2018. The major problem lies with the requirement for any sites undergoing major refurbishment and with a projected volume in excess of 500,000 litres, having to install PVR2. This requirement applies from 2012. Defra is in the process of drafting guidance to Local Authorities on a definition of ‘major refurbishment’! It is anticipated that the installation of dispensers alone or the replacement of pipe-work separately to the replacement of dispensers would not be included. PEIMF is assisting Defra with this guidance.

Bio-fuels

The number of problems associated with the storage of biofuel has significantly fallen. Having gone through the induction stage, which brought a spate of problems in certain areas, the ongoing need now is for good housekeeping, regular checks for water and the periodic
cleaning of filters. The biggest problem still remains with the lack of information as to whether a delivery contains biofuel and if so how much. This has implications for distributors, retailers, motorists and forecourt contractors. This creates a situation where it has become impossible to establish liability in the event of failure. A paper has been presented to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) regarding the lack of information and lack of transparency, which presents problems for retailers and may create health risks for contractors.

PEIMF Representation

PEIMF is now formally represented on the Defra Stakeholders Committee, which has been welcomed by Defra as it ensures they are fully consulting with the contracting industry. This came about as a result of consultation on the EU Directive for Stage2 PVR, when it became clear that unless the guidance allowed the installation of second hand dispensers it would have had serious consequences for certain PEIMF members. That has hopefully now been resolved, but it
emphasised the need for proper consideration of contractors.

Environmental Guidance

The Energy Institute is to undertake a review of its environmental guidelines contained in the following publications

• Guidelines for investigation and remediation of petroleum retail sites
• Guidelines for soil, groundwater and surface water protection and vapour emission control at petrol filling stations
• Guidance document on risk assessment for the water environment at operational fuel storage and dispensing facilities.

All three documents are due for review and a decision has yet to be taken on whether these three documents should be republished as one or kept as three publications.

Technical Report Council Meeting January 2011

P Monger gave a brief update.

Stage 2 EU Directive

At a recent Stakeholder meeting on the 12th January, Defra told the group that the Minister had turned down a proposal to repeal the UK legislation in advance of implementing the EU Directive on Stage 2 PVR. The reason given for this refusal was that the total savings to Industry would be no more than £300.000 pa. The Consultation on implementing the EU Directive was now expected to be published in February. If Industry wished to revisit the subject of costs, it could do so when responding to the Consultation.

UL Report on Component Compatibility

As previously reported, the Energy Institute were proposing a research item on material compatibility, which had been pre-empted by a report from Underwriters Laboratory. This reported on tests carried out on dispensing equipment designed for up to E10 ethanol blend. The report highlighted components that had failed to operate or had leaked when exposed to higher blends of ethanol. The Institute would probably carry out a gap analysis of the report before commencing its project rather than duplicate the work already carried out. It was important for retailers to note the risk areas and monitor the performance of their equipment.

Bio-fuels

At the last meeting of the Biofuel User Group, it had been agreed not to hold further meetings unless unexpected problems emerge. The group had been started by freight operators originally, but had then been taken over by the Energy Institute. Its initial work had been completed and a great deal of information gathered. It was agreed to keep the Group active and for a workshop to be held for the industry in the spring in order to provide the findings to a wider audience.

LPG Inspections

Inspections of LPG installations were being carried out across the UK, following the findings of the explosion in Scotland. This had led to problems for petrol station operators who were frequently being challenged on their compliance with codes of practice. The Scottish incident had little relevance to retail petrol stations that did not normally have pipework buried beneath buildings. Notwithstanding that, some sites had decommissioned their LPG facilities rather than spend capital on a fringe activity.

PEIMF Protocol for Contracting

He reminded Council that he would need a list of work activity, if he was to progress this protocol. From that list it would be possible to produce a simple protocol that would carry the logo of PEIMF alongside that of the Environment Agency.  Council members agreed to provide a list of their activities to him.