SPCC Plans For The Uninitiated
An SPCC (Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure) plan is a document that should be drawn up by the owner of any oil storage facility to describe what steps are to be taken for the handling of oil, what to do if spills occur, what drainage or discharge controls are in place, who is in charge, and what resources and equipment can be brought into use to prevent any oil spills from reaching the coastline or any busy shipping lanes. The SPCC plans must be drawn up according to recognized engineering standards.
A danger to public health, oil spills impact upon drinking water, have a devastating effect on natural resources and disrupt the economy. Massive amounts of oil are consumed in the United States for heating, operating equipment and used as fuel in automobiles. There are often oil spills on the land or into rivers while oil is being transported or during exploration and during production processing. This oil soaks into the ground or floats away in rivers.
Oil spills should be prevented at all costs and when they do happen, they should be promptly cleaned up. It is a fact that preventing a spill is often less expensive than cleaning up after one. The SPCC rule exists to help facilities prevent oil that has been spilled, from entering navigable waters or nearby shorelines.
The SPCC rule applies to any facility that can store more than 1,320 gallons of oil above ground or greater than 42,000 gallons below ground and there is a reason to suspect that there may be an oil leak. All types of oil are covered, including fuel oil; petroleum; refuse oil; sludge; waste oil and vegetable oil to name but a few. The type of facilities that are covered by the regulation are any that store, refine, process, consume or use oil and are not in the business of transporting the oil.
Those facilities meeting the aforementioned criteria must abide by the SPCC rules and must take steps to prevent oil spills and must develop and implement an SPCC plan of their own. There are some steps the owner/operator can use to prevent the spilling of oil. These include: using containers suited to the storage of oil; employ an alarm to notify of any overfill; ensure there are adequate backup containment facilities such as dikes made from earth or concrete or tanks with double walls that will be able to hold all of the leaked oil plus rainwater if this becomes necessary.
Secondary containment should be provided to catch the spills that occur when transferring oil between containers and when offloading tankers. Drip pans, absorbing materials or curbing mechanisms should be used as well as regular inspections of all containers and pipes. Underground pipes need to be leak tested after installation or repair and written records should be included in the plan for these tests.
The owner or operator is responsible for drawing up and implementing the SPCC plan. As soon as the descriptions of the necessary steps have been completed, a Professional Engineer can certify the document. The owner may sign the certification if he chooses, or is able to, depending on certain conditions.
These conditions are subject to certain eligibility criteria such as; the total capacity of aboveground storage should be 10,000 gallons or less, for three years prior to certification, there has been no single oil discharge into the water or onto the shoreline that exceeds 1,000 gallons, two discharges of oil into the water or shoreline have not exceeded 42 gallons over the previous twelve months. If the facility cannot meet the above requirements then a licensed Professional Engineer must certify the SPCC plans.
SPCC plans help organizations and individuals to prepare for emergencies and disasters in the transport and handling of hazardous materials. Emergency response plans are mandated by regulations and statutes in most jurisdictions.
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