Petroleum Reimbursement Fund

The New Hampshire Petroleum Reimbursement Fund Program (Fund) is a financial assistance program authorized by state statute RSA 146-D (Oil Discharge and Disposal Cleanup Fund) and administered under N.H. Administrative Rules Odb 400. The Fund provides excess insurance coverage for eligible parties with corrective action and third party damages caused by contamination from petroleum storage facilities (aboveground and underground storage tanks storing gasoline, diesel, fuel oil including home heating oil, motor oil, and used motor oil). The Fund is also available to potential contamination source properties contaminated by gasoline ethers for reimbursement of corrective action costs (investigation, remediation and monitoring) and to owners of private and public water supply wells to remedy gasoline ether contamination.

The following project types are potentially eligible for fund reimbursement:

• LAST (leaking aboveground storage tanks).
• LUST (leaking underground storage tank facilities).
• FUEL (leaking bulk fuel oil storage facilities).
• MOST (leaking motor oil or used oil storage tanks).
• OPUF (leaking on-premise use facilities).
• ETHER (contamination by gasoline ethers).

Establishing Fund Eligibility

To obtain Fund coverage for reimbursement of NHDES-required correction action costs, a facility owner or landowner must submit eligibility documents for NHDES review and approval. The eligibility documents include:

• The Request for Reimbursement Eligibility Authorization Form;
• Private insurance coverage information (or notarized letter stating there is no insurance) for the initial eligibility request;
• Facility compliance information, if a facility continues to operate at the site where eligibility is sought; and
• Copy of an indemnification agreement if a former facility owner or landowner will continue corrective action after the facility or land is sold to another party or entity.

When addressing gasoline ether contamination, the Fund does not function as excess insurance by statute. Therefore, to obtain Fund coverage for potential contamination source properties, private insurance information is not required; however, reimbursement is not available for costs paid by private insurance.

Fund Reimbursement Process

To receive reimbursement from the Fund, all corrective action work must be pre-approved by NHDES for both scope and budget. A fund-eligible party must submit a completed Work Scope Authorization Form or Change Order Authorization Form for NHDES review and approval prior to completing corrective action work using the Unit Based Rate tables for Initial Response, Investigation and Remediation and Point-of-Entry Treatment Systems and Bottled Water. Following work scope and budget approval, the corrective action is performed and a report summarizing those activities is uploaded to NHDES’ OneStop database. After submission of a corrective action report, the owner or applicant can submit the reimbursement request to NHDES for review, approval and payment.  

Fund FAQs

NHDES provides some guidance based on some frequently asked questions.

• Establishing Fund Eligibility
• Reimbursement of Eligible Costs