Maine Oil Tank Grants and the Clean-up Fund
Two different pots of state money touch an oil tank in Maine. One helps replace a tank before it fails. The other pays toward cleaning up after one already has, and it has conditions attached that catch people out.
The Maine Tank Replacement Program
The Department set the Aboveground Home Heating Oil Storage Tank Replacement Program up in 1998, to replace unsafe tanks before they contaminate drinking water rather than pay for the clean-up afterwards. It is funded from the state clean-up fund, and the statute sets three annual ceilings.
Up to $2,000,000 a Year Through Community Action Agencies
Loans and grants to retrofit, repair, replace or remove above ground and underground oil storage tanks and their piping at single family residences.
Up to $500,000 a Year for Approved Rebate Programs
Added by the 2020 Act, for department-approved rebates aimed at retrofitting and replacing tanks at residential dwellings.
Up to $500,000 a Year for Municipal Efforts
For town-level work replacing or retrofitting above ground tanks where they threaten groundwater or a public water supply.
Worth reading the first one twice. The program is named for aboveground tanks, but the statutory allocation behind it covers removal of underground tanks and piping at single family residences too.
Allocations from 38 M.R.S. section 551(5), paragraphs N, O and P, as amended by P.L. 2019 ch. 583. Program description from Maine DEP. Read August 2026.
Who the Replacement Program Excludes
Eligibility runs on the same income thresholds as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the household has to be single family and owner occupied. Applications go to your local Community Action Agency, not to the Department, which is the single most common wrong turn: people call Augusta and are sent back to a county office.
The owner occupied condition is the one that decides most Portland ME cases. This is a city with a great deal of let and inherited property, and a tank at a house you own but do not live in is outside the program however old the tank is. There is a separate, smaller strand worth up to $500 for deficient ancillary equipment, where the tank itself is sound but a gauge, line or fitting is not.
You can check the current position on the Department’s replacement program page. We do not decide who qualifies and we never present a ceiling as a payment.
Income test, owner occupied condition and delivery through the Community Action Agencies from Maine DEP’s replacement program page; the $500 equipment strand from the Department’s aboveground tank FAQ. Read August 2026.
The Ground and Surface Waters Clean-up and Response Fund
The second pot is not for replacing a tank. It is for what a tank has already put in the ground.
The fund sits at 38 M.R.S. section 551 and pays eligible clean-up costs and third party damage claims, with coverage running up to $750,000 for occurrences of this kind. It is the reason a residential oil release in Maine is survivable rather than ruinous, and it is also the reason the Department wants to be involved from the beginning.
Coverage ceiling from 38 M.R.S. section 568-A and section 551. Read August 2026.
The Deductible on a Homeowner Claim
A homeowner with one underground storage facility carries a $2,500 deductible. On top of that sit conditional amounts of $2,000 each, applied for failures to comply with the installation and monitoring duties in 38 M.R.S. section 565, including the duty to report evidence of a possible leak.
That last one is worth dwelling on, because it prices delay. Noticing something and saying nothing is not neutral: it is a conditional addition to what you pay before the fund pays anything. Against that, the applicant pays the deductible or the total eligible costs, whichever is less, so a small clean-up does not produce a bill larger than the work.
The Commissioner may also waive the deductible entirely for an applicant’s personal residence where they are found not to have the resources to pay it. The full text is in the deductible provisions at section 568-A.
Deductible, conditional additions, the lesser-of rule and the hardship waiver from 38 M.R.S. section 568-A. Read August 2026. Whether a waiver is granted is the Commissioner’s decision.
The Written Agreement Required Before Clean-up Spending
This is the condition that turns an eligible claim into an ineligible one, and it is procedural rather than technical.
Payments from the fund are limited to clean-up expenditures made in accordance with a written agreement between the applicant and the Department. Money spent before that agreement exists is money spent outside it.
So the order matters more than the speed. If contamination turns up during a tank removal, the right next step is the report and the agreement, not a contractor starting to dig out soil on the same afternoon because it seems helpful.
Written agreement requirement from 38 M.R.S. section 551. Read August 2026.
Questions About Maine Tank Money
- Will Maine pay to replace my oil tank?
- It may, if you own and live in a single family home and your income falls within the LIHEAP thresholds. The money is administered by your local Community Action Agency rather than by the Department of Environmental Protection, so the agency is who decides and who you apply to.
- Does the replacement program cover a rental property?
- No. It is for single family, owner occupied residential households. A tank at a property you let out, or at a house you have inherited and are not living in, falls outside it.
- What is the deductible if my tank has leaked?
- A homeowner with one underground storage facility starts at $2,500. Conditional amounts of $2,000 each can be added for failures to comply with the installation and monitoring duties, including the duty to report evidence of a possible leak. You pay the deductible or the total eligible costs, whichever is less.
- Can the deductible be waived?
- For a personal residence, yes. The Commissioner may waive it where the applicant is found not to have the financial resources to pay. It is a decision made by the Department on the facts, not something a contractor can arrange.
- Can I clean up first and claim afterwards?
- That is the mistake to avoid. The fund reimburses expenditures made in accordance with a written agreement between the applicant and the Department, so the agreement has to exist before the spending does.
Ask Which Maine Money Applies to You
Tell us whether you live at the property, whether the tank is buried, and whether anything has been found in the ground. Those three answers separate the two programs.