In October 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) compliance date by one year for certain facilities. Facilities covered under the October 2010 amendments have until November 10, 2011 to implement their new or amended SPCC Plans in accordance with revisions that have been made to the SPCC rule since 2002.

The SPCC rule establishes requirements for preventing oil discharges into navigable waters and adjoining shorelines. Facilities that have oil storage capacities greater than established limits are required to develop and implement a written SPCC Plan.

The following facilities are ineligible for the one-year compliance date extension and must comply with the SPCC rule by November 10, 2010:

• Drilling, production or workover facilities, including mobile or portable facilities, located offshore or with an offshore component; and
• Onshore facilities that are required to maintain Facility Response Plans.

Facilities that do not fall in these groups and were in operation before August 16, 2002 need to maintain and continue implementing an SPCC Plan in accordance with the previous SPCC regulations.

The EPA’s October 2010 final rule also delays the SPCC compliance date for facilities having affected milk and milk product containers including associated piping and appurtenances. The new SPCC compliance date for such facilities is contingent on the promulgation of a final rule specifically addressing milk and milk product containers, associated piping and appurtenances.

Useful Links

EPA’s SPCC Webpage

Full text of the October 2010 final amendment

History of the SPCC Regulations

On July 17, 2002, the EPA published a final rule that amended the SPCC regulations (67 FR 47042). This rule became effective on August 16, 2002. The final rule included compliance dates in Section 112.3 for preparing, amending, and implementing SPCC Plans. The original compliance dates were amended on January 9, 2003 (68 FR 1348), again on April 17, 2003 (68 FR 18890), a third time on August 11, 2004 (69 FR 48794), a fourth time on February 17, 2006 (71 FR 8462), a fifth time on May 16, 2007 (72 FR 27443), and a sixth time on June 19, 2009 (74 FR 29136).

(Source: EPA web site)

About the Author

Mandy Garrahan is a professional engineer and project manager in the Boston, U.S.A. office of Environmental Resources Management (ERM). Her areas of expertise include characterizing environmental releases from industrial, manufacturing, and combustion processes; evaluating the impacts of environmental regulations on business operations; multimedia environmental permitting, recordkeeping and reporting; and multimedia environmental compliance auditing.

Photograph: Autumn Colors by Brian Lary, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

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