United States Office of EPA-550-F-07-006 Environmental Protection Emergency Management October 2007 Agency (5104A) www.epa.gov/emergencies Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Proposed Rule Amendments Information about the October 2007 proposed amendments to the SPCC Rule for Facilities handling Animal Fats and Vegetable Oils (AFVO) EPA proposed amendments to the SPCC rule to increase clarity and tailor certain requirements as they apply to those facilities handling animal fats and vegetable oils (AFVO) in an effort to increase compliance. The public now has the opportunity to comment on these proposed changes during a 60- day comment period, following publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register. Nothing in this proposed rule removes any regulatory requirement for owners or operators of SPCC regulated production facilities in operation before the effective date of August 16, 2002 to develop, implement, and maintain an SPCC Plan in accordance with the SPCC regulations. For additional information on the proposed rule amendments and for SPCC compliance information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/emergencies. The SPCC rule applies to owners or operators of facilities that: • store, transfer, use, or consume oil or oil products (for example, gasoline, heating oil, off-road diesel, on-road diesel, lubrication/hydraulic oils, animal fats and vegetable oils) above applicable thresholds (listed below), and • could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to waters of the U.S. The applicable capacity thresholds for facilities subject to the SPCC rule are: • aboveground oil storage capacity* greater than 1,320 gallons, or • completely buried oil storage capacity* greater than 42,000 gallons. *counting only containers with a capacity of 55 gallons or greater. Facility owners or operators that handle AFVO should pay special attention to the following proposed revisions to the SPCC rule: EPA is proposing the following amendments to the SPCC rule: • differentiated integrity testing requirements for containers that store AFVO and meet certain criteria and FDA regulatory requirements; • a definition for "loading/unloading rack"; and • streamlined requirements and allowance 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 container capacity of 10,000 gallons). ------- Additionally, all SPCC-regulated facilities, including facilities that handle AFVO would be potentially affected by the proposed amendments 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 definition of "facility" associated with describing a facility's boundaries. Please submit your comments on the proposed amendments at www.regulations.gov. If you have specific questions about the proposed amendments, please contact our helpline at 1-800-424-9346. For More Information Read the proposed SPCC rule amendment http://www.epa.gov/emergencies Comment on the proposed SPCC rule amendment and review docket documents http://www.regulations.gov Follow the online instructions to comment on Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OPA-2007-0584 Review the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation (40 CFR part 112) http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/ Visit the EPA Office of Emergency Management Web site http://www.epa.gov/emergencies Call the Superfund, TRI, EPCRA, RMP, and Oil Information Center (800) 424-9346 or (703) 412-9810 TDD (800) 553-7672 or (703) 412-3323 http://www.epa.gov/superfund/resources/infocenter ------- |