Establishing the Ohio Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board: Dispelling the notion of a open-quotes Pot of Goldclose quotes

The authors are the Executive Director and the Chief Financial Officer of the Ohio Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board. Under the guidance of a public-sector governing board, they are responsible for implementing Ohio's UST Financial Assurance Fund program and for managing the resources and priorities necessary to maintain a solvent, practical approach to legislatively-mandated UST corrective action costs in Ohio. The paper will discuss: (1) the challenges of legislating and implementing a state assurance fund; (2) the task of defining the program's mission and coming to terms with open-quotes great expectationsclose quotes of tank owners and clean-up contractors; (3) implementing true cost-controls; how the regulatory back-drop contributes to costs and success; (4) managing the financial assets of an assurance fund and estimating future clean-up needs; (5) the search for the proper mix of financing alternatives, including reinsurance; (6) defining long-term success. The paper will develop the evolution of the essential elements of the Ohio Financial Assurance Fund and focus on the financial management of necessary resources to fulfill the public-sector mission. Managing claim costs and meeting the grassroots expectation of claimants underscore critical development issues: (1) establishing and communicating the Fund's purpose and management philosophy; (2) forging a companion relationship between industry and regulator; (3) how do such funds maintain solvency and dispel the notion that they constitute a open-quotes pot of goldclose quotes for environmental liability?