SPILLS AND RESPONSIBILITY
An outline of who is responsible for fuel spills and countermeasure plans
by Gary Mazza
Consultant Gary Mazza asks the question, Is your facility required to have a SPCC or FRP? If so, Mazza offers a primer on what the objectives of a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan should be, and outlines the facility response plan requirements for fuel facilities.
In August of 1990,
Congress amended the Clean Water Act by creating the Oil Pollution Act
mainly in response to the public's concern regarding the Exxon Valdez
incident. These amendments expanded the ability of the federal government
to prevent and respond to oil spills. These amendments also increased
the penalties for non-compliance and broadened the response and enforcement
authorities of the federal government.
As part of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) plan to reduce
and prevent oil releases from reaching the waters of our nation, EPA requires
that certain facilities develop, maintain, and implement a Spill Prevention,
Control and Counter-measure Plan (SPCC) and a Facility Response Plan (FRP).
The SPCC PLAN
Federal Regulation 40 CFR 112 provides the foundation and guidelines for
development of an SPCC Plan with regard to petroleum products (as well
as hazardous materials). The SPCC Plan establishes written procedures,
methods, necessary equipment, containment, and other countermeasures to
prevent the discharge of petroleum products from a storage facility.
In accordance with the regulations, an SPCC Plan must be written and certified
by a licensed professional engineer when one of the following requirements
is met:
- There is a reasonable potential for discharging oil from a fixed storage facility into waters of the U.S.; and/or
- The oil storage capacity on site exceeds either 42,000 gallons of total underground storage, or 1,320 gallons of total aboveground storage, or any single container having a capacity in excess of 660 gallons.
The SPCC Plan is amended
in accordance with the regulations if there is a change in facility design,
construction, operation, or maintenance, which will affect the potential
for an oil discharge from the facility into navigable waters of the United
States or adjoining shorelines.
Plan amendments must be implemented in their entirety, as soon as possible,
but not later than six months after such a change occurs. No amendment
to the SPCC Plan will satisfy the regulations unless a professional engineer
has certified it. The plan must also be reviewed, evaluated, and certified
every three years, even if there are no changes to report.
In accordance with the regulations, owners or operators of facilities
who violate the requirements by failing to or refusing to comply with
any of the provisions are liable to a civil penalty of not more than $5,000
for each day a violation continues.
In July of 1994, amendments were made to 40 CFR 112 identifying criteria
to be used to determine whether or not a facility is a "substantial
harm facility" and therefore subject to additional requirements.
If a fuel storage facility meets the "substantial harm" criteria
defined by 40 CFR 9 and 112, a separate Facility Response Plan (FRP) will
be required. If a facility develops a FRP, the facility's SPCC Plan should
be referred to primarily for information on designated equipment, procedures,
and available resources to address a spill.
The FRP PLAN
The purpose of a FRP is to document proper containment measures and precautions
to prevent the discharge of oil and other petroleum products from a fuel
storage facility to the environment and navigable waters of the United
States. A FRP is developed to comply with the requirements of 40 CFR 9
and 112.
Who should prepare an FRP? If you answer yes to one of the following,
your facility must develop a FRP:
- Does your facility transfer oil over water to and/or from vessels and does the facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to 42,000 gallons?
- Does your facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to 1 million gallons and does the facility lack secondary containment that is necessary to contain the capacity of the largest aboveground oil storage tank plus sufficient freeboard to allow for precipitation within any aboveground storage tank area?
- Does your facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to 1 million gallons and is the facility located a distance (calculated using the EPA's formula) such that a discharge from the facility could cause potential injury to fish and wildlife and sensitive environments.
- Does your facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to 1 million gallons and is the facility located a distance (calculated using the EPA's appropriate formula) such that a discharge from the facility would shut down a public drinking water intake?
- Does your facility have a total oil storage capacity greater than or equal to 1 million gallons and has the facility experienced a reportable oil spill in an amount greater than or equal to 10,000 gallons within the last 5 years?
In order to meet the requirements, an FRP must include, but not be limited to, the following:
- an emergency response action plan;
- facility information (i.e., owner/operator name and address, location, SIC code, date of startup, storage capacity, current operations, and designated responsible person);
- emergency response information, hazard evaluation, discharge scenarios, discharge detection/prevention system, plan implementation, self inspection, drill and exercises;
- response training, facility diagrams (site location plan, site evacuation plan, site piping plan, and site drainage plan), security; and
- acronyms or references mentioned in the plan.
It should be noted
that some states require additional plans to the FRP and SPCC (i.e. The
Commonwealth of Virginia under regulation 9 VAC 25-91-10 requires that
any facility having an aggregate aboveground maximum storage or handling
capacity of equal to or greater than 25,000 gallons of oil shall develop
and implement an Oil Discharge Contingency Plan). Check with your local
state.
Having these plans in place is of paramount importance, as a recent EPA
investigation has revealed a large increase in compliance issues, related
to such events as pipeline leaks, aboveground/underground storage tank
overfills and structure leaks, leaking valves and illegal discharge of
oil and other petroleum products.
TRI Reporting - Who Is Responsible
In 1986, Congress passed Section 313, the Emergency Planning & Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA). Through this act, Congress transformed voluntary reporting programs, including the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) into mandatory reporting programs.
TRI is an annual
computerized database consisting of toxic chemical pollution released
into the environment from a variety of different facilities. The
purpose of this annual reporting to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and subsequent sharing of the information with the
public, is to analyze and monitor a facility's progress in reducing
pollution. This helps inform and educate local communities with
their emergency planning and pollution prevention activities. The
EPA does not use data in these reports to penalize companies for
pollution violations; however they can penalize companies for not
reporting on an annual basis.
EPA can assess civil penalties for not reporting. A company that
does not comply with this law is liable for up to $25,000 a day
for each violation. In addition to the penalties assessed by the
EPA, private citizens may file lawsuits to force a company to comply
with the law.
In 1997, EPCRA added 7 new industrial sectors designated by the
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code, as well as 286 new
chemicals to the EPCRA's Section 313 list. The aviation industry
is affected by this change as airport fuel facilities are classified
as petroleum bulk stations and terminals under SIC code 5171. This
requires owner/operators of airport fuel facilities to comply under
the EPCRA Section 313 (TRI) reporting requirements and file Form
R and/or Form A certification statements. Only those fuel facilities
that meet all of the following criteria must report, regardless
of whether a facility releases any amount of the listed chemical
into any environmental medium:
- SIC code 5171 classification;
- Employs 10 or more full-time employees;
- Manufactures, processes or otherwise uses any EPCRA Section 313 chemicals. The following chemicals are likely to be present above De minimis concentrations at fuel facilities;
- Gasoline constituents- benzene, ethylbenzene, MTBE, -hexane, toluene, xylene,1,2,4-trimethylbenzene
- No. 2 Fuel Oil/ Diesel Fuel - n-hexane, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene
- No. 6 Fuel Oil - (PACs)
- Crude oil - benzene, n-hexane, xylene
- Kerosene - toluene
- Aviation gas - benzene, toluene, xylene, napthalene
- Jet fuel - benzene, n-hexane, toluene, xylene, cyclohexane
- Solvents - n-butyl alcohol, dichloromethane, -hexane, phosphoric acid, cyclohexane, and tert-butyl alcohol
- Lubrication oils - zinc compounds
- Cleaning/disinfectants - chlorine, chlorine dioxide, formaldehyde, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane
- Exceeds any of the activity thresholds for an EPCRA Section 313 chemical, i.e. the manufacture or processing of 25,000 pounds or usage 10,000 pounds per year.
* * *
Please
make note that your facility becomes a manufacturing site simply by the
production of nitrogen compounds in a wastewater treatment system (such
as an oil/water separator) and/or a processing site simply by transferring
from storage tank to tank truck and then distributing the product for
commerce.
During preparation of the TRI report, facilities are instructed to use
the best "readily available data" or best "reasonable estimates".
The TRI report must be submitted on or before July 1 each year and lists
activities that occurred at the facility during the previous year.
