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).

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 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

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