Important facts you should know about creating SPCC plans for oil storage

SPCC—Regulated oil-Storage facilities must comply

SPCC (Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure) plans are required by EPA’s SPCC regulations for thousands of facilities that store oil. The EPA requires regulated facilities to develop and implement an SPCC plan to avoid oil spills and minimize the impacts of spills on public health and the environment. The plans must include provisions for oil spill prevention, spill response, and SPCC training. As defined in the SPCC regulations at 40 CFR 112, regulated facilities are non-transportation-related facilities with an aboveground oil storage capacity greater than 1,320 gallons or underground tanks with an oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 gallons that can be reasonably expected to discharge oil into navigable U.S. waters or shorelines.

According to the EPA, hundreds of thousands of facilities are potentially regulated under the SPCC regulations. Many of those must have a written SPCC plan. Not having an SPCC plan can and will hurt you. Compliance with SPCC regulations is more than environmental protection. It’s also necessary to prevent penalties that could cost over $45,000 per day.

Training, inspections, and recordkeeping: creating useful and compliant plans

SPCC-regulated facilities are subject to EPA inspections. In fact, the EPA performs hundreds of SPCC inspections annually! Having a complete and implemented SPCC Plan at a facility is essential to a successful inspection.

SPCC plans also help save you time. By implementing your SPCC plan properly, you can provide effective training to employees and organize inspection checklists and records. It’s not enough to just write an SPCC plan—its procedures must be followed in order to comply with SPCC regulations. EPA inspectors are looking for implementation through proper spill prevention, spill response, training, documentation and recordkeeping, and spill containment measures when they visit a facility.