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Legislation & Rules

SPCC Amendments Proposed Rule, Federal Register Notice, October 15, 2007 This proposed rule revises the SPCC requirements to address farming and oil production operations.  Several terminal-related proposals are included.  This rule proposes to: exempt hot-mix asphalt (HMA); revise the term “loading/unloading rack;” amend secondary containment requirements to allow facilities more flexibility; modify security requirements; and incorporate industry standards related to qualifying tank inspectors and integrity testing.

40 CFR 112.1 – 112.15 (Subparts A-C) This set of regulations establish the Spill Prevention, Containment, and Countermeasures (SPCC) rule. They establish procedures, methods, equipment, and other requirements to prevent the discharge of oil from non-transportation-related onshore and offshore facilities into or upon the navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines, or into or upon the waters of the contiguous zone.  This rule applies to any owner or operator of a non-transportation-related onshore or offshore facility engaged in drilling, producing, gathering, storing, processing, refining, transferring, distributing, using, or consuming oil and oil products, which due to its location, could reasonably be expected to discharge oil in quantities that may be “harmful.” Generally interpreted as “leave a sheen.” 

Clean Water Act, CWA §§ 311 (j)(1)(c) Requires the prevention and containment of discharges of oil and hazardous substances from vessels and from onshore facilities and off shore facilities.

Updates, Comments & Other Reports

October 2007 EPA has published a proposed rule to amend the SPCC requirements.  It contains five terminal-related provisions that seem to take into account operational realities and the need for site-specific considerations. Proposed changes:

• Current integrity testing requirements are revised to allow an owner/operator to adopt inspection protocols prescribed in industry standards without the need for environmental equivalence determinations to be certified by a professional engineer (P.E.).  Instead, the rule would only require P.E. certification should a facility owner/operator adopt an approach that deviates from the SPCC provision or from industry standards.

• Secondary containment provisions are clarified, requiring only consideration of the typical failure mode and the most likely quantity of oil that would be discharged in determining the method, design and capacity for secondary containment.  Based on the proposed language, facilities may be able to amend their secondary containment methods currently listed in their SPCC plans.  Secondary containment may either be active or passive in design. The proposed rule also would add “drain pans, sumps and collection systems” to the list of examples of prevention systems for onshore facilities.

• The definition of “loading/unloading” rack is revised, using similar text derived from the American Petroleum Institute’s terminology.  The new definition would remove existing EPA language relating to various rack components, the frequency of use, and the types of facilities at which a rack could be located.

• Prescriptive security requirements, notably fencing, are replaced with general protocols that would allow terminal facilities to tailor their security measures based on location and site-specific characteristics.  To demonstrate compliance, facilities would be required to document their security measures and implementation procedures within their SPCC plan.

• Hot-mix asphalt (HMA) is exempted from the SPCC requirements as is the requirement for facilities to include HMA containers in aggregate storage capacity calculations.  EPA would continue to maintain the existing SPCC regulations for asphalt cement, asphalt emulsions, and cutbacks.

July 2007  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on EPA’s economic analyses of the 2002 and 2006 SPCC amendments, noting that the analyses had limitations that reduced the data’s usefulness for assessing the amendments’ costs and benefits.  GAO could not confirm that the amendments were economically justified, as EPA had originally concluded. To access the report, click here.

May 2007 Compliance Dates Extended The compliance dates for owners and operators to prepare or amend and implement the SPCC rule have been extended to July 1, 2009.  It is expected that this will be the final extension to these requirements.

This extension is expected to provide additional time for “bulk plants” (<10,000 gallons pf storage capacity) to make changes to their facilities and their SPCC plans, as necessary, to comply with the SPCC rule as amended in 2006. While it is not expected that the ILTA member community will be materially impacted by these rule revisions, the extension applies to the entire regulated community.

Additionally, EPA has claimed that the extension will provide the opportunity for facilities to understand the material presented in the SPCC Guidance for Regional Inspectors.  This document was first published in December 2005.  Please note, EPA is currently revising this document to reflect changes based on the December 2006 amendments to the SPCC rule.

December 2006 EPA issued a new amendment to the SPCC rule.  This amendment pertains to smaller oil storage facilities, qualified oil-filled operational equipment, motive power containers, and mobile refuelers.  In addition, the amendment limits the requirements that are applicable to animal fat and vegetable oil storage facilities. 

Related Articles

ILTA provides a monthly newsletter to its membership.  Members may log in to the Member Resources page to access archived newsletters.  The following is a list of articles ILTA has published in its newsletter relating to the SPCC rule and subsequent amendments.

• EPA Proposes New Amendments to SPCC Rule: Terminals May See Regulatory Relief November 2007 Issue (p.3)
• GAO Refutes EPA’s Economic Analysis of the 2002 and 2006 SPCC Amendments, September 2007 Issue (p.3-4)
• EPA Amends SPCC Rules, Proposes Extension of Compliance Deadline…Again, January 2007 Issue (p.4)
• Bulk Storage Tank Regulation and Inspection by EPA and DOT, September 2006 Issue (p.2)
• ILTA EH&S Committee Meeting to Focus on EPA’s SPCC Guidance for Regional Inspectors, December 2005 Issue (p.3)
• EPA to Review SPCC Compliance Guidance Document During ILTA EH&S Meeting, August 2005 Issue (p.5)