As we enter 2010, the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) amendments finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the end of 2008 have finally gone into effect. Many of these amendments (and other reforms finalized by EPA back in 2006) will ease the compliance burden on construction companies covered by the federal oil spill control regulations. The amendments respond to many of AGC's main concerns as well as the association's recommendations on how to improve the SPCC program. EPA has set a November 10, 2010, compliance deadline for regulated construction sites to prepare and implement SPCC Plans that meet all of the current requirements; however, the Agency plans to separately propose to extend the deadline because of the uncertainty surrounding the final amendments to the rule and an earlier delay of the effective date.
EPA's SPCC planning requirements cover your construction jobsite if (1) your oil storage containers (in tanks of 55 gallons or greater, including asphalt cement tanks) have a total capacity of more than 1,320 gallons and (2) a spill could reach U.S. navigable waters or adjoining shorelines. See section on "Regulated Construction Sites" below for more details.
AGC's SPCC Reform Achievements
Â鶹ÊÓƵhas been working with EPA for nearly seven years to provide the Agency with practical advice and counsel on how to streamline the oil spill rules to minimize the implementation problems common to construction sites.Â
The original SPCC rules were published in December 1973. In July 2002, EPA amended those rules in a manner that would increase regulatory burdens and costs (e.g., new requirements for integrity and leak-testing, security and lighting, and PE-certifications). At that time, Â鶹ÊÓƵbegan working with EPA to reduce the rule's burden on construction contractors, and to address provisions that simply do not make sense for construction jobsites. EPA made further changes to the SPCC rules via final rules published in December 2006 and December 2008.Â
2006 Reforms - In 2006, EPA finally made :Ìý
- It permitted contractors to self-certify their SPCC Plans (1) for certain low-risk sites and (2) for all sites with less than 10,000 gallons of oil storage capacity. The original rule required all such Plans to be reviewed and certified by a professional engineer.
- It excluded "motive power" tanks from the tanks that count toward the storage capacity of any one site, and it exempted such tanks from the rule's secondary containment and other requirements.
- For qualified operational equipment, it provided an alternative to the general requirement for secondary containment.
- It exempted mobile refuelers from the requirement for secondary containment for bulk storage containers.
- It provided an optional "template" for a streamlined SPCC Plan that a contractor can self-certify for certain low-risk sites.
- It exempted hot-mix asphalt and hot-mix asphalt containers from SPCC rule applicability, and excluded silos of hot-mix asphalt from the total storage capacity for any job site. The rule, however, continues to cover asphalt cement, asphalt emulsions and cutbacks.
- All jobsites have to immediately report any spill of any "harmful quantity" that has the potential to reach waters of the United States to the National Response Center.
- All covered jobsites have to report all spills over 1,000 gallons as well as any two spills over 42 gallons within any 12 month period to EPA. The gallon amount(s) specified (either 1,000 or 42) refers to the amount of oil that actually reaches U.S. navigable waters or adjoining shorelines, not the total amount of oil spilled.Â