Proposed revisions that will change the requirements for facilities subject to the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule are expected within weeks. According to EPA, the revisions will tailor and streamline requirements to particular industry sectors and facilities subject to the rule.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson recently signed a proposed rule to amend the rule at 40 CFR part 112.

All SPCC-regulated facilities would be potentially affected by the proposed amendments, through which EPA intends to provide:

Clarity on the general secondary containment requirements,
Flexibility in the security requirements,
Flexibility in the use of industry standards to comply with integrity testing requirements,
Additional flexibility in meeting the facility diagram requirements, and
Clarification on the flexibility provided by the definition of “facility.”
Some of the other proposed changes include exemptions and a definition of loading/unloading rack.

Plan template allowed for small facilities
The changes would also streamline requirements and allow the use of an SPCC Plan template for a subset of qualified facilities known as “Tier 1” qualified facilities (i.e., with no individual oil storage container with a capacity greater than 5,000 U.S. gallons up to an aggregate of 10,000 gallons).

Until then, comply with old rule
Nothing in this proposed rule removes any regulatory requirement for owners or operators of facilities in operation before Aug. 16, 2002, to develop, implement, and maintain an SPCC plan in accordance with the SPCC regulations then in effect. These facilities are required to maintain their plans until the applicable date for revising and implementing plans under the new amendments.

Public comments on the proposed changes will be accepted for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register, which is expected within two weeks. Information about the SPCC rule proposed amendments is available at www.epa.gov/oilspill/spcc_oct07.htm