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| Duane A. Lienemann |
UNL Extension Educator, Webster County
February 8, 2013 Edition
If you are not aware of it, or had forgotten, farmers storing fuel or other petroleum products on their farms soon will need a written plan for preventing and handling spills, through the EPA’s “Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure” (SPCC) regulation. Some think this is a new rule or regulation, but in reality it is an amendment to the original Oil Pollution Prevention Rule, under the authority of the Clean Water Act, which was implemented in the 1970s. This “new” amended rule was supposed to take effect on Nov. 10, 2011, but was postponed until May 1, 2013. Farms in operation on or before August 16, 2002 must maintain or update their existing SPCC plans and farm operations started after that date are required to prepare and use a plan by May 1, 2013. The EPA is moving from the implementation mode into the enforcement mode and many producers are not at all aware of the new requirements that will at the very least force them to have a plan in order, and in some cases to get an inspector/engineer, and maybe build or update their containment facility. Failure to produce an SPCC plan by a regulated entity upon inspection by the EPA can result in fines ranging from $400 to several thousand dollars. You can visit: www.epa.gov/oem/content/spcc/index.htm , or contact me for further information.
That means that farmers are going to have to take a good look at this regulation and if applicable, get into compliance before they get the planters out. The SPCC's basic intent is to make sure growers who store large amounts of these products are putting in place measures that will protect the area around their properties, specifically groundwater and surface water. Among the changes is a shift in responsibility. Tank owners are responsible for any consequences of a leak or spill and the clean-up costs, which in most cases are much higher than investing in a secondary containment system.
An SPCC plan is a management tool used to prevent the discharge of oil into navigable waters of the United States. Entities required to have a plan must include detailed information on operating procedures used to prevent oil spills; control measure installed to prevent oil spills from reaching navigable waters; countermeasures to contain, clean up and mitigate effects of a spill and other elements such as site security, facility diagrams, inspection and evaluation records, etc. Containment systems must be in place if a discharge could reasonably be expected to reach a waterway or sanitary sewer inlet. This system must be able to contain 110 percent of the largest tank's volume, and the bottom and walls of the system must have a permeability of .03 inches per day or less. I believe that language also includes something about heavy rains or floods. Containment structures like sealed basins or impermeable dikes and pads can catch and hold the contents of a storage tank if they leak or rupture. These structures also can help to hold fuel if an overflow occurs during filling. Concrete, clay, native materials, synthetic membranes, and other materials may be used for the secondary containment system as long as it meets the permeability standard in the regulation.
The spill-prevention plan will need to include information such as how petroleum products are stored, the location of storage units, the farm's topography and steps to be taken in the event of a spill. The design and installation must take into account storm water flows, too. The containment structure should be set up in a way that minimizes rainwater accumulation in the structure. In developing their plans, homeowners and producers should list all containers on their property and include a schematic drawing of their locations. The plan also would include a brief description of the actions to be taken in the event of a spill or rupture. It should also include a brief description of the measures the owner would take to contain and clean up a spill and a list of emergency contacts including first responders.
The document is kept on the farm and must be updated with any changes made; the EPA does not receive a copy. However, you must have it on file, not in your head! If EPA has to respond to a spill on your farm, they will ask for this plan, and regulatory enforcement likely would occur only if an EPA representative visits a farm. My guess is that your fuel supplier will eventually require it anyway before they can deliver fuel to you for liability reasons, and there is also talk of insurance companies requiring it for liability as well. You might want to check with your fuel and oil supplier.
How do you know if you need to complete one of these plans or have an engineer do it for you? The way I read it, under the new amendments, the EPA's SPCC rule only applies to farms and homes with more than 1,320 gallons in above-ground storage, and producers should only count containers that hold 55 U.S. gallons (or more) of petroleum products, which are counted toward the regulated total. Gasoline, diesel fuel and oil in tractors, trucks and other vehicular machinery are exempt. So basically, farmers would not be required to write a SPCC plan if they have less than 1,320 gallons of petroleum products stored on separate farms, as long as no single farm stores more than the regulated minimum.
If they are between 1,321 gallons and 10,000 gallons they can self-certify with their own written plan. Producers with less than 10,000 gallons of total above-ground storage capacity in containers smaller than 5,000 gallons and a clean spill record for the last three years are also eligible to self-certify their plans, and may use a free template provided by the EPA to create a plan which can be found at: www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/spcc/tier1temp.htm . If they are at greater than 10,000 gallons, the plan has to be written by a certified professional engineer. Farmers can expect to spend between $1,000 and $4,000 to hire an engineer to create a SPCC plan. You don’t want to cross the EPA. My advice – “Don’t put this off!”
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home
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