United States             Office of                   EPA-550-F-07-005
                     Environmental Protection      Emergency Management         October 2007
                     Agency                 (5104A)                   www.epa.gov/emergencies


Spill  Prevention, Control, and  Countermeasure (SPCC)
Proposed Rule Amendments

Information about October 2007 proposed amendments to the SPCC Rule

EPA has proposed amendments to the SPCC rule that will increase clarity and tailor certain
requirements for easier and increased compliance. The regulated community 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.

EPA is requesting comments on the following proposed changes to the SPCC
regulations:

All SPCC-regulated facilities 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 flexibility provided by the definition of "facility."

In addition to the amendments listed above, EPA is proposing to:

    •  Exempt the following from SPCC regulations:

         •  hot-mix asphalt and hot-mix asphalt containers;

         •  pesticide application equipment and related mix containers used at farms;

         •  heating oil containers at single-family residences; and

         •  completely buried oil storage tanks at nuclear power generation facilities that meet the
            Nuclear Regulatory Commission design criteria and quality assurance criteria at 10 CFR
            part 50, Appendices A and B.

    •  Differentiate integrity testing requirements for containers that store Animal Fats or
       Vegetable Oils (AFVO) and meet certain criteria and FDA regulatory requirements.

    •  Define "loading/unloading rack" in order to clarify the equipment subject to the
      provisions for facility tank car and tank truck loading/unloading racks and exclude farms
      and oil production facilities from the loading/unloading requirements; and

    •  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);

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             and

          •   several requirements for oil production facilities, including:

                -  modify the definition of "production facility", consistent with the proposed
                   amendments to the definition of "facility";

                -  extend the timeframe by which a new oil production facility must prepare and
                   implement an SPCC Plan;

                -  exempt flow-through process vessels at oil production facilities from the sized
                   secondary containment requirements, while maintaining general secondary
                   containment requirements and requiring additional oil spill prevention measures;

                -  exempt flowlines and intra-facility gathering lines at oil production facilities from
                   all secondary containment requirements, while establishing more specific oil spill
                   prevention measures;

                -  clarify the definition of "permanently closed" as it applies to an oil production
                   facility.

       (Note: EPA is also taking comment on approaches that could be used to establish alternative
       criteria for an oil production facility to be eligible to self-certify an SPCC Plan as a qualified
       facility, and approaches to address produced water containers at oil production facilities.)

   •   Clarify that nurse tanks used at farms are included in the December 2006 amendments
       related to mobile refuelers and therefore exempt from the specifically sized secondary
       containment requirements for bulk storage containers.

All SPCC regulated facilities are still required to comply with the existing SPCC regulations while EPA
considers these  proposed amendments.  For information about facilities required to comply with the
SPCC and any compliance  date extensions, please visit www.epa.gov/emergencies.
Please submit your comments on
the proposed rule 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, and 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 Super-fund, 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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