Section 37A. As used in this section, the term ''fuel storage tank'' shall mean an underground tank used or designed to be used for the storage of gasoline, oil, or other fuel, or other flammable liquids; provided, that such tank does not have an acceptable form of leak detection and does not have a spill containment manhole and an overfill prevention device.

The underground storage tank petroleum cleanup fund administrative review board, established pursuant to section eight of chapter twenty-one J, herein referred to as ''the board'', shall establish and administer a program to provide grants to cities, towns, districts, and other bodies politic, not to include agencies or authorities of the commonwealth, for the purpose of removing or replacing or both, fuel storage tanks that they own or operate, subject to the following conditions:

(1) No grant shall be awarded for the removal or replacement of any fuel storage tank unless the city, town, district, or other body politic, not to include agencies or authorities of the commonwealth, that owns or operates the tank files with the board, within six months after the initial publication in the Massachusetts Register of regulations implementing this section, a statement that it has removed or replaced such tank on or after April first, nineteen hundred and ninety-one.

(2) A city, town, district or other body politic, not to include agencies or authorities of the commonwealth, which removes or replaces a fuel storage tank after the effective date of implementation of said regulations may file an application for a grant with the board within one year after removing or replacing such tank. This clause shall not be construed to limit the board's authority to accept application from a city, town, district, or other body politic, not to include agencies or authorities of the commonwealth, that intends to remove or replace a fuel storage tank.

(3) A grant for the removal or replacement of a fuel storage tank may be made either in a single payment or in annual partial payments for a period not to exceed ten years, as the board shall determine, provided that no grant, whether issued as a single payment or in annual partial payments, shall exceed fifty percent of the total cost of the removal of the fuel storage tank which is the subject of the grant.

All annual payments made to cities and towns pursuant to this section may be made as part of annual local aid distribution to cities and towns.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the rights, responsibilities, or liability of any person pursuant to any other law.

No person who has responsibility or liability pursuant to any other law shall avoid or delay such responsibility or liability, or be excused from such responsibility or liability, because of reliance or grants provided for in this section or because of any failure or delay to provide grants or grant payments pursuant to this section.

The board shall promulgate regulations for the proper implementation of this section, including, without limitation, regulations for filing grant applications and for filing the statements provided for in this section.