The new
Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Rule will affect many
different people and companies in 2010. The new rule has gone over may
different changes over the course of 2009. This newly amended rule will bring
changes to the way compliance and safety measures are setup. The rule will come
in effect on January 14, 2010 according to the EPA website.
Finalized
Amendments to the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Rule
On December 5, 2008, the Federal
Register published EPA's amendments to the SPCC rule in order to provide increased
clarity, to tailor requirements to particular industry sectors, and to
streamline certain requirements for those facility owners or operators subject
to the rule, which should result in greater protection to human health and the
environment.
On April 1, 2009, the Federal
Register published EPA's delay of the effective date of the December 5, 2008,
Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure final rule. This delay is in
response to public comments and the Office of Management and Budget's January 21, 2009,
memorandum (PDF) (About
PDF)
regarding regulatory review.
The December 5, 2008, amendments
will become effective on January 14, 2010. Neither this delay, nor the December
5, 2008, final rule remove any regulatory requirement for owners or operators
of facilities in operation before August 16, 2002, to maintain an SPCC Plan in
accordance with the SPCC regulations.
In November 2009, EPA promulgated
revisions to the December 2008 amendments. EPA either retained or provided
minor technical corrections for the majority of the December 2008 provisions.
EPA removed provisions that excluded farms and oil production facilities from
the loading/unloading rack requirements, exempted certain produced water
containers at oil production facilities, and provided alternative qualified
facilities eligibility criteria for oil production facilities.
Who will
this effect and When?
According
to the EPA website, on June 19, 2009, it published a compliance date
extension for all facilities (including farms) until November 10, 2010.
A facility starting operation on or before August 16, 2002 must
maintain its existing SPCC Plan. It also must amend and implement the
SPCC Plan no later than November 10, 2010. Facilities that started operations after August 16, 2002 through November 10, 2010 must prepare and implement the SPCC Plan no later than November 10, 2010. Any facility starting operations after November 10, 2010 must prepare and implement an SPCC Plan before beginning operations.
The EPA removed
things like the exclusion for oil production facilities and farms from
loading/unloading rack requirements, alternative qualified facility eligibility
criteria for an oil production facility and exemption for certain produced
water containers. To give better clarity on certain defined terms, the EPA also
amended the definitions of facility, loading/unloading rack, production facility, produced water container, and
permanently closed.
What are
the new revisions to the General Secondary Containment Requirement?
- Clarifies that the general secondary containment
requirement is intended to address the most likely oil discharge from any
part of a facility.
- Allows active and passive secondary containment.
- New text: “… In
determining the method, design, and capacity for secondary containment,
you need only to address the typical failure mode, and the most likely
quantity of oil that would be discharged. Secondary containment may be
either active or passive in design.”