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On December 26, 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency amended certain requirements for facilities subject to EPA's Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations. The SPCC regulations require covered facilities to prevent, prepare for and respond to oil discharges. The final rule provides alternative compliance options for certain regulated facilities.

This final rule describes streamlined options for specifically qualified facilities and exemptions from the SPCC regulations for certain vehicle fuel tanks and other on-board bulk oil storage containers. The revised rule also exempts mobile refuelers from the sized secondary containment requirements for bulk storage containers, and removes requirements for animal fats and vegetable oils that pertain to onshore and offshore oil production facilities, oil drilling and workover facilities.

The amendments (a) provide the option for owners and operators of facilities that store 10,000 gallons of oil or less and meet other qualifying criteria to self-certify their SPCC Plans in lieu of review and certification by a Professional Engineer; (b) provide an alternative to the general secondary containment requirement without requiring a determination of impracticability for facilities that have particular types of oil-filled equipment; (c) exempt certain vehicle fuel tanks and other on-board bulk oil storage containers used for motive power; and (d) exempt mobile refuelers from the sized secondary containment requirements for bulk storage containers.

The amendments also extend the SPCC compliance dates for farms until a future rule can specifically address how farms should be regulated under the SPCC rule.

This final rule became effective February 26, 2007.

To provide the regulated community time to implement these modifications, as well as anticipated additional modifications, EPA also issued a proposed rule to extend the compliance dates to July 1, 2009 for owners and operators of facilities (with the exception of farms) to amend and implement an existing SPCC plan or in the case of new facilities, time to prepare and implement a new SPCC plan. Currently, most facilities are required to comply with 2002 revisions to SPCC requirements by October 31, 2007.

The latest rule amendments did not remove any regulatory requirement for owners or operators of facilities in operation before August 16, 2002, to have developed, implemented and maintained a SPCC plan in accordance with the SPCC regulations then in effect. Such facilities continue to be required to maintain their plans until the applicable dates for amending and implementing their existing plans.

Further information is available at the EPA oil spill prevention website. For additional guidance and assistance with spill prevention, control and countermeasure plan requirements, please contact us.

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