Jun 2, 2026 · 43 min · 5 segments
Agency inspections are a routine part of operating a bulk fuel facility, but that doesn’t make them any less stressful. In this episode of Tank Talk, Shannon breaks down what inspectors are actually…
Shannon OelkersHostNo entities detected.
Well, for Alaska, it's mostly the State of Alaska for various permits like stormwater or oil discharge, pollution control and prevention plans, and also the US Coast Guard.
Sometimes, although not as frequently, the EPA is also out inspecting for any number of permits, water, air, spill response or spill control.
Depending on where you are, there may also be a local level of inspection from your municipality, a borough, or maybe even a landowner if you lease from, like, an airport, for example.
So those are the kind of the broad range of, like, who would be out and about.
By far, most of our clients in bulk fuel storage industries, they're seeing the State of Alaska representatives or US Coast Guard representatives.
Why do agencies inspect these facilities?
Oh, why do agencies inspect? I don't know, money, prestige, catching bad guys.
[chuckles]
All of those things probably run through a terminal manager's mind when they hear that they're going to be inspected.
But I think if you honestly spoke with most inspectors, they would say that they wanna help you maintain and achieve compliance and help you perform better.
There are definitely other aspects to an inspection, specifically, you know, to ensure that the environment's protected.
And then there's also a component about informing and educating those handling all these different hazardous materials about the rules and regulations that apply.
There's, all joking aside, it's, uh, one, to make sure that regulations are being met, but it's also to help educate and acknowledge and improve processes and operations at the facility.
What determines the difference between a good inspection and a bad inspection?
[sighs] Typically, what we see is that if a terminal manager is not prepared for an inspection, it doesn't go as well, and if they're very prepared, it goes a lot better.
As a former inspector myself, I actually inspected for the State of Alaska at the beginning of my career under the SPAR program.
What made me wanna look more closely at a facility, and I think this is universal for all inspectors, is if you're interviewing somebody and they have stories that change or they have a complete lack of knowledge of a certain inspection area, they've got poor records generally overall, and then walking around the tank farm, you're seeing poor housekeeping.
It kinda leads to this, if these easy things are not being addressed, how much of the hard stuff is actually being attended to? And I think for a lot of agency inspections, when those things aren't addressed up front, it sort of causes them to pause and take a more in-depth look because they're trying to figure out what's really going on here.
And so that's the difference between a good and a bad inspection, is the more you prepare year-round, just being ready for an inspection at any time of the year, but especially if the inspector calls ahead and tells you they're coming in a few days or a few weeks, whatever you can do with that heads-up knowledge to prepare for this inspection will make it go better.
I know we're all dying to know, what is it the agencies are looking for during an inspection?
Well, it's interesting because some agencies like the Coast Guard actually have a published checklist of what they're looking for, and you can actually see exactly what it is that they want.
Well, for Alaska, it's mostly the State of Alaska for various permits like stormwater or oil discharge, pollution control and prevention plans, and also the US Coast Guard.
Sometimes, although not as frequently, the EPA is also out inspecting for any number of permits, water, air, spill response or spill control.
Depending on where you are, there may also be a local level of inspection from your municipality, a borough, or maybe even a landowner if you lease from, like, an airport, for example.
So those are the kind of the broad range of, like, who would be out and about.
By far, most of our clients in bulk fuel storage industries, they're seeing the State of Alaska representatives or US Coast Guard representatives.
Why do agencies inspect these facilities?
Oh, why do agencies inspect? I don't know, money, prestige, catching bad guys.
[chuckles]
All of those things probably run through a terminal manager's mind when they hear that they're going to be inspected.
But I think if you honestly spoke with most inspectors, they would say that they wanna help you maintain and achieve compliance and help you perform better.
There are definitely other aspects to an inspection, specifically, you know, to ensure that the environment's protected.
And then there's also a component about informing and educating those handling all these different hazardous materials about the rules and regulations that apply.
There's, all joking aside, it's, uh, one, to make sure that regulations are being met, but it's also to help educate and acknowledge and improve processes and operations at the facility.
What determines the difference between a good inspection and a bad inspection?
[sighs] Typically, what we see is that if a terminal manager is not prepared for an inspection, it doesn't go as well, and if they're very prepared, it goes a lot better.
As a former inspector myself, I actually inspected for the State of Alaska at the beginning of my career under the SPAR program.
What made me wanna look more closely at a facility, and I think this is universal for all inspectors, is if you're interviewing somebody and they have stories that change or they have a complete lack of knowledge of a certain inspection area, they've got poor records generally overall, and then walking around the tank farm, you're seeing poor housekeeping.
It kinda leads to this, if these easy things are not being addressed, how much of the hard stuff is actually being attended to? And I think for a lot of agency inspections, when those things aren't addressed up front, it sort of causes them to pause and take a more in-depth look because they're trying to figure out what's really going on here.
And so that's the difference between a good and a bad inspection, is the more you prepare year-round, just being ready for an inspection at any time of the year, but especially if the inspector calls ahead and tells you they're coming in a few days or a few weeks, whatever you can do with that heads-up knowledge to prepare for this inspection will make it go better.
I know we're all dying to know, what is it the agencies are looking for during an inspection?
Well, it's interesting because some agencies like the Coast Guard actually have a published checklist of what they're looking for, and you can actually see exactly what it is that they want.
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