Replacing, Removing, or Upgrading Underground Storage Tanks (RUST) grants are available to assist small business underground storage tank (UST) owners and operators in financing up to 100 percent of the costs necessary to upgrade, remove, or replace project tanks to comply with the requirements of Health and Safety Code section 25284.1, 25292.05, 25292.4, 25292.5, or 41954. Please note that removal-only projects are now eligible for RUST grants. Grants are available for between $3,000 and $70,000 to eligible UST owners/operators. An additional $140,000 in RUST grant moneys above the $70,000 maximum is available for remote public fueling stations for the purpose of removing and replacing a single-walled UST. (See Health and Safety Code § 25299.107(e) for more information.) Eligibility Requirements Grant applicants must be a UST owner and/or operator and meet all of the following requirements: • The applicant is a small business that employs fewer than 20 full-time and part-time employees, is independently owned and operated, and is not dominant in its field of operation; • The grant applicant’s principal office and its officers must be domiciled in California; • The facility where the project tank is located was legally in business retailing gasoline after January 1, 1999. • All of the tanks owned and operated by the grant applicant are subject to compliance with Health and Safety Code chapter 6.7 and implementing regulations; • The facility where the subject tank is located has sold, at retail, less than 900,000 gallons of gasoline annually for each of the two years preceding the submission of the grant application; (Gallonage is based upon taxable sales figures provided to the State Board of Equalization (BOE) on the grant applicant’s BOE 401 GS including Schedule G.) • The grant applicant meets either of the following: The grant applicant is in compliance with Health and Safety Code sections 41954 and 25290.1, 25290.2, 25291, or subdivisions (d) and (e) of section 25292; (The facility must provide a current UST permit, a current Permit to Operate, and proof of EVR compliance as evidence of compliance with the permit compliance requirements.) or Revised 1/2020 The grant applicant meets the requirements for a waiver from the RUST grant permit compliance requirements. (The project is for removal-only and the grant applicant does not qualify for a RUST loan.) This is not a reimbursement program. Work cannot begin until you have an agreement executed by the State Water Board.
