Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures (SPCC) Regulations Update The current deadline for most facilities (including typical mining and aggregate operations) is November 10, 2011. All facilities subject to the SPCC rule must be in full compliance by this date. The Environmental Protection Agency s Oil Pollution Prevention Rule became effective January 10, 1974. It was published under the authority of Section 311(j)(1)(C) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act). The regulation may be found at Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 112 (40 CFR 112). This regulation applies to facilities engaging in drilling, producing, gathering, storing, processing, refining, transferring, distributing, or consuming oil products. Facilities subject to the rule must prepare and implement a plan to prevent any discharge of oil into or upon navigable waters of the United States or ad-joining shorelines. The plan is called a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan. Facilities need to have a SPCC Plan if they have: An aboveground oil storage capacity greater than 1,320 gallons An underground oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 gallons 1 In determining the applicability of the SPCC rule, facility oil storage capacity includes only containers that are 55-gallons or greater, including drums, totes, and aboveground oil storage tanks. For the purpose of determining SPCC applicability, the facility must also include oilfilled operational equipment such as turbines, gear boxes, hydraulic systems, and electrical transformers that contain 55 gallons or more of oil (as defined below). Oil covered under the SPCC regulation includes oils, or greases of animal, fish or marine mammal origin, and other oils and greases, including petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, synthetic oils, mineral oils, oil refuse, or oil mixed with wastes other than dredged spoil. Therefore, the SPCC rule also applies to synthetic oils including heat transfer fluids, engine fluids, hydraulic and transmission fluids, metalworking fluids, dielectric fluids, compressor lubricants, and turbine lubricants. In July 2002, EPA amended the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation and incorporated revisions proposed in 1991, 1993, and 1997. In summary, these major rule changes included: Exemptions o Completely buried tanks. The rule exempts completely buried tanks that are subject to all technical requirements of the Underground Storage Tank rules (40 CFR Part 280 or 281). o Minimum container size - 55 gallon containers. The rule exempts a container of less than 55 gallons from its scope. 1 Underground storage tanks (USTs) that are in compliance with federal UST regulations (40 CFR Part 280) or an equivalent state program approved under 40 CFR part 281 do not count toward the facility s oil storage capacity and are not subject to SPCC requirements, except that their locations must be shown on the facility diagram.
o Wastewater treatment facilities. The rule exempts any facility or part thereof used exclusively for wastewater treatment and not for any Part 112 requirements. This exemption does not apply to the production, recycling, or recovery of oil, which are not considered wastewater treatment. o Misc. exemptions - Permanently closed tanks, Minerals Management Service facilities Regulatory threshold. The rule raises the threshold by eliminating the 660 gallon/single container criterion, creating a greater than 1,320 gallon threshold. SPCC Plan Preparation - otherwise exempt facilities. EPA may require preparation of an SPCC Plan for otherwise exempt facilities on a case-by-case basis, where necessary to carry out the purposes of the Clean Water Act. Alternative formats - SPCC Plans. An owner or operator may use an Integrated Contingency Plan (ICP) or a State SPCC Plan or any other format acceptable to the Regional Administrator (RA) that meets Part 112 requirements. If the owner or operator does not follow the sequence specified in the rule, he must provide a cross reference. Five-year review; documentation of review. EPA changed from 3 to 5 years the period in which an owner or operator would be required to review the SPCC Plan. Business records. EPA allows, but does not require, an owner or operator to use usual and customary business records (including NPDES stormwater bypass records) to satisfy recordkeeping requirements. Professional Engineers (PEs). The rule changes allow a professional subordinate to conduct the site visit in place of the PE, but the PE must review the subordinate s work and certify the Plan; unless the facility meets the requirements of a Qualified Facility. In December 2006, the EPA published additional SPCC Rule Amendments which provided the option for qualified facilities to self-certify their SPCC Plans in lieu of certification by a Professional Engineer. Qualified facilities are those which have an aboveground storage capacity of less than 10,000 gallons and meet the oil discharge history criteria. In order to meet the oil discharge history criteria, the facility must not have had a single discharge of oil to navigable waters exceeding 1,000 gallons or two discharges of oil to navigable waters each exceeding 42 gallons within any 12 month period. Other December 2006 Amendments include providing an alternative to general secondary containment for qualified oil-filled operational equipment; an exemption for motive power containers; and an exemption for mobile refuelers from the sized secondary containment requirements for bulk storage containers. In May 2007, the EPA published a final rule amending the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Rule which extended the SPCC compliance dates in 112.3(a), (b), and (c) for all facilities until July 1, 2009. In October 2007, amendments to the SPCC Rule were proposed and were expected to be finalized before the July 1, 2009 deadline. For More Information Contact: Page 2 of 6
On November 20, 2008, EPA published additional amendments to the proposed SPCC regulation, including extension of the compliance deadline to November 20, 2009 for most facilities. These final amendments were published in the Federal Register on December 5, 2008. EPA then proposed several interim compliance dates for various parts of the SPCC rule, which resulted in confusion regarding the date by which all facilities will be required to be in compliance with all aspects of the updated SPCC rule. On November 5, 2009, EPA published a mostly administrative amendment to the rule that provided clarification regarding a number of specific aspects of the December 2008 technical amendments, and established an effective date of January 14, 2010 and a compliance date of November 10, 2010 for the updated rule. In October 2010, EPA once again extended the SPCC compliance date for most types of regulated facilities outside the oil production industry, and the current deadline for most facilities (including typical mining and aggregate operations) is November 10, 2011. All facilities subject to the SPCC rule must be in full compliance by this date. It is important to note that the December 2008 amendments represented the most broad-based and extensive changes proposed to the rule since the initial July 2002 modifications were proposed, and modifications and updates to the rule since that time have been largely administrative. The following is a summary of these amendments affecting the widest range of regulated facilities: Additional clarification and assistance for qualified facilities, including a breakdown in Tier I and Tier II qualified facilities and an SPCC Plan template for use by Tier I facilities; Amendment to the definition of facility allowing additional flexibility in determining facility boundaries; Exemption for residential heating oil containers; Amendment to the facility diagram requirement for fixed and mobile storage containers and complex piping/transfer areas; Modification to the definition of a loading/unloading rack for tank trucks and tank cars; Amendment to the general secondary containment requirement; Exemption for non-transportation-related tank trucks from sized secondary containment requirements; Amendment to the facility security requirements to allow the facility owner/operator to tailor security measures to the facility s specific characteristics and location; and For More Information Contact: Page 3 of 6
Amendment to the integrity testing requirements for bulk storage containers to allow greater flexibility in the use of industry standards at all facilities. The following is a brief summary of the key components of the updated SPCC rule with emphasis on the most recent (November 2008) technical changes. Security. Section 112.7(g)(1) requires that owners or operators provide adequate security measures to prevent acts of vandalism, and to assist in the discovery of oil releases. The 2002 amendments included a requirement to fully fence the facility handling, processing, or storing oil and lock or guard entrance gates, or at a minimum provide environmental equivalence by fencing around storage areas. This provision has been replaced in the 2008 amendments by a more general, performance-based security requirement that requires the facility to address specifically in the SPCC Plan how security will be provided with regard to access control, lighting, and securing controls such as pumps and valves. Facility Drainage/General Secondary Containment. At a regulated facility, all areas with the potential for a discharge are subject to the general secondary containment provisions. Facility drainage systems must be designed such that flow from undiked areas with a potential for a discharge (such as truck unloading areas or piping that runs outside secondary containment areas) must be prevented from leaving the site. The 2002 amendments required that this drainage enter ponds, lagoons, or catchment basins and prevent oil-contaminated water from escaping the facility and becoming a discharge to navigable waters. Where the facility drainage cannot be engineered as described above, the amended 2002 SPCC rule required that the facility equip the final discharge points of all ditches within the facility with a diversion system that would, in the event of a discharge, retain the oil at the facility. The 2008 amendments modify this general secondary containment requirement by clarifying that the measures that are required to meet this provision: (1) need only be sized to address the typical failure mode and quantity (i.e., sized secondary containment to meet 100 percent of the largest container plus adequate freeboard is not required for general secondary containment); (2) the measures may be either passive or active in nature; and (3) may include such specific provisions as drip pans, sumps, and collection systems. Thus, the overall effect of the 2008 amendment is that the facility will have additional discretion in how to meet the general secondary containment requirement, consistent with good engineering practice. Sized Secondary Containment for Oil Storage Devices. Bulk storage containers, including mobile/portable containers, storage tanks, and loading/unloading racks, are subject to sized secondary containment requirements. The secondary containment system must have a capacity to contain the largest single oil compartment or container plus sufficient freeboard to contain precipitation. There are no exceptions to sized secondary containment for oil storage devices (tanks, drums, totes); impracticability is not considered, and environmental equivalence may not be used to meet this requirement for these devices. Secondary containment systems include dikes, berms, or retaining walls sufficiently impervious to contain oil; curbing; culverting, gutters, or other drainage systems; weirs, booms For More Information Contact: Page 4 of 6
or other barriers; spill diversion ponds; retention ponds; or sorbent materials. A sufficient freeboard capacity should contain the amount of precipitation from a 25-year, 24-hour storm event; however this method is not strictly defined in the regulations and thus may not be enforceable by the EPA. Oil/water separators may be used as part of a facility drainage system to meet the secondary containment requirements of the rule. Oil/water separators used to satisfy these rule requirements are subject to the applicable secondary containment requirements, but they do not count toward storage capacity. Transfer points, piping, and oil-filled equipment are not subject to sized secondary containment, but must have adequate containment capacity to address the typical failure mode and quantity. If secondary containment is impractical for these locations, facility owners and operators must clearly explain in the SPCC Plan why such secondary containment is impractical and implement an equivalent measure, such as periodic integrity testing and leak testing of valves and piping; preparing an oil spill contingency plan following the provisions of 40 CFR 109; and a written commitment of manpower, equipment, and materials to expeditiously control and remove an oil release. For oil-filled equipment, a specific impracticability determination is not required for each individual piece of equipment; rather, the facility may state in the SPCC Plan that containment is impractical for these units, and that potential oil spills will be addressed through an equivalent measure, such as an oil spill contingency plan. Drainage from diked areas must be controlled by use of manual valves. For dikes areas serving as secondary containment for bulk storage containers, it is required that stormwater be inspected for the presence of oil and records of the drainage event must be maintained. Inspections and Integrity Testing. Regular inspections are a critical part of discharge prevention. Inspections are required to be conducted on containers, associated piping and valves, container supports and foundations and on other equipment that could be a source or cause of an oil release. The 2002 amendments required that for oil storage containers, visual inspections must be combined periodically with another non-destructive testing (NDT) technique such as ultrasound, magnetic flux, or hydrostatic testing, and comparison records must be kept. The 2008 amendments significantly modify this rule to allow the owner/operator to determine, in accordance with industry standards, the following: (1) the appropriate qualifications for the personnel performing the periodic testing/inspections; and (2) the frequency and type of testing to be performed. In its practical application, this modified requirement eliminates the strict requirement for NDT for smaller tanks under 5,000 gallons that are not in contact with the ground (i.e., are on legs or cradles). Industry guidelines developed by the Steel Tank Institute recommend only periodic visual inspections for these smaller Category 1 tanks, and allow facilities to self-perform these visual inspections if operators are trained and industry standards are followed. This modification eliminates the need to NDT for a wide range of industrial storage tanks. For More Information Contact: Page 5 of 6
Qualified Facilities: EPA previously established streamlined SPCC requirements for qualified facilities, defined as facilities with 10,000 gallons or less aggregate aboveground oil storage and satisfactory oil spill history. Under the previously amended regulations, these qualified facilities could develop and self-certify their own SPCC plans without outside assistance or certification from a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.). The November 2008 amendments expand upon the previously proposed qualified facility option by defining two categories of qualified facilities, Tier I and Tier II. Under the updated regulations, a Tier I facility, which is defined as having 10,000 gallons or less of storage capacity with no individual aboveground storage container larger than 5,000 gallons, cannot only self-certify its SPCC Plan, but can also utilize an SPCC Plan template (provided as an appendix to 40 CFR 112) to prepare its Plan. For More Information Contact: Page 6 of 6