The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) implemented the project to understand the international management trends, to collect the baseline data as well as the current conditions of aboveground storage tanks (AST). EPA also investigated the causes resulting from the AST leakage for the purpose of developing Taiwan’s AST management strategies. The foreign AST laws and regulations were reviewed and compared with Taiwan’s current laws. The results indicated that the substance inventory management should be enhanced, and the leak detection and monitoring regulations of AST systems should be enforced. In addition, the AST data of different business sectors were established and the supply chain relationship between various industries were confirmed according to the source of raw materials and sales. Also, the substances were categorized into 725 types, in which there were 442 types with chemical abstracts service number (CAS number), and 202 types were classified according to Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) hazard group. Moreover, the addresses of business were normalized for coordinate positioning. The business areas were defined with reference to the cadastral data and aerial photos. The actual locations of AST were collected through the image recognition technology. Through the digital surface model and three-dimensional measurement, the height and volume of the tanks were estimated for the high AST density areas. Therefore, a baseline list of the 6,300 businesses was built. The aforementioned results were imported into the system of the underground storage tank reporting center with query functions Furthermore, 14 screening factors were formulated for the screening principle of the on-site survey, and the inspection of 326 sites of AST were completed, in which soil and/or groundwater investigation and verification were carried out for 8 sites and 3 of them were verified to be contaminated. As stated above, the 3 management strategies were established for AST, including implementing pollution prevention facilities, standardizing monitoring equipment, and completing management procedures. Besides, 5 meetings were held with related businesses/industries to collect their opinions on the aforementioned strategies.

soil and groundwater, aboveground storage tanks, contamination investigation