The New Hampshire Petroleum Reimbursement Fund
Safetank helps you deal with a tank before it fails. This is the other fund, the one that exists for after.
If you take one thing from this page, take the sequence. Work has to be approved before it is done. Cleaning up first and submitting the invoices afterward is how homeowners end up funding their own remediation.
What the Fund Is
The New Hampshire Petroleum Reimbursement Fund provides excess insurance coverage for corrective action required by NHDES, and for third party damages, from contamination at petroleum storage facilities.
Excess insurance is the important framing. It sits behind private insurance rather than in front of it, and it is aimed at eligible parties who do not have coverage for the loss.
NHDES, as of August 13, 2026
Where It Comes From
It is authorised by state statute RSA 146-D, the Oil Discharge and Disposal Cleanup Fund, and administered under New Hampshire Administrative Rules Odb 400, with Odb 200 alongside.
Decisions on disbursement sit with the Oil Fund Disbursement Board.
NHDES, RSA 146-D, as of August 13, 2026
The Category That Covers Houses
The fund runs across several project types: LAST for leaking aboveground storage tanks, LUST for underground tank facilities, FUEL for bulk fuel oil storage, MOST for motor oil and used oil tanks, ETHER for gasoline ether contamination, and OPUF for leaking on-premises-use facilities.
OPUF is the home heating oil case. If your basement or buried tank has released, that is the category you are in.
NHDES, as of August 13, 2026
The Compliance Condition
Eligibility requires the tank to be in compliance with all federal, state and local rules and regulations, and NHDES names NFPA 31 and its own Best Management Practices for the Installation and Upgrading of On-Premises-Use Heating Oil Tanks, 2008 edition.
This is the sting in the tail of a cheap installation. The consequence of skipping the standard is not a penalty at the time, it is that the fund is not there on the one day you need it.
It is also the reason we would rather do an installation to the standard and say why than compete on a number that quietly removes your safety net.
NHDES, as of August 13, 2026
How Reimbursement Runs
Eligibility is established first, by submitting documents to NHDES for review: a Request for Reimbursement Eligibility Authorization Form, private insurance information or a notarised letter confirming there is none, and facility compliance information.
Then, and this is the part people get wrong, all corrective action work must be pre-approved by NHDES for both scope and budget before it is carried out. That runs through a Work Scope Authorization Form, or a Change Order Authorization Form if the job moves, against the state's unit-based rate tables.
The work happens, a report is uploaded to NHDES OneStop, and the reimbursement request follows for review, approval and payment.
NHDES, as of August 13, 2026
What This Means on a Real Job
If we open the ground and what is under the tank is a release rather than surface staining, we stop and tell you. We do not keep digging and hand you a bill.
That pause is not caution for its own sake. Continuing would be carrying out corrective action that NHDES has not approved, which is the specific act that puts reimbursement out of reach.
NHDES publishes a contact for the fund: Jeremy Slayton, Fund Management Section Supervisor, on (603) 271-2570. That is the state's line for questions about the program, not ours.
NHDES, as of August 13, 2026
Common Questions
- Who pays to clean up a heating oil leak in New Hampshire?
- Private insurance first where it covers it. Where it does not, the Petroleum Reimbursement Fund provides excess coverage for NHDES-required corrective action, for eligible parties, under RSA 146-D.
- Can I clean it up first and claim afterwards?
- No. Corrective action has to be pre-approved by NHDES for scope and budget before it is carried out. This is the single most common and most expensive mistake in the whole process.
- Does the fund cover a house tank?
- Yes, under the OPUF category, which covers leaking on-premises-use facilities. That is the home heating oil case.
- What could make me ineligible?
- Having private insurance that covers the loss, since this is excess coverage. Or the tank not being in compliance with applicable rules, which NHDES ties specifically to NFPA 31 and its own best management practices.
- Is this the same as the Safetank grant?
- No, they are separate. Safetank helps replace or remove a substandard tank before it fails. This fund reimburses cleanup after a release. Safetank remains available to a homeowner even after a release has occurred.
Related
Reviewed August 13, 2026. Every figure on this page is dated and listed on our sources page.