Pesticide Container and Containment Regulations At A Glance

The purpose of this document is to provide an outline of many of the requirements of the regulations “Standards for Pesticide Containers and Containment.”  This document reflects the requirements established in August 2006 and amended in October 2008.  With this document, EPA intends to facilitate the public’s ability to determine who is subject to the rule and how to comply.

Because this is a summary, many details are not included.  Refer to the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR parts 156 and 165) and the October 29, 2008 Federal Register Notice for the full version.

This Web page includes the following:

1. Overview table of who must comply, a list of major requirements and the compliance date for each of the five areas of regulatory standards.
2. Overview table of the products that are subject to the nonrefillable, refillable and repackaging regulations.
3. A short summary of each of the five areas of the regulatory standards, addressing:
   
   • Nonrefillable containers;
   • Refillable containers;
   • Repackaging pesticide products;
   • Container labeling; and
   • Containment structures.

Applicability of SPCC Rules Summarized

The following sets forth the types of sources subject to the SPCC rule; the coverage has not changed substantially from the 2002 version of the SPCC rule:

The SPCC rule applies to owners or operators of non-transportation-related facilities that:

• Drill, produce, store, process, refine, transfer, distribute, use, or consume oil or oil products; and
• Could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to U.S. navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.

Facilities are subject to the rule if they meet at least one of the following capacity thresholds:

• Aboveground oil storage capacity greater than 1,320 U.S. gallons, or completely buried oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 U.S. gallons.

The following are exempt from the rule:

• Containers with a storage capacity less than 55 U.S. gallons of oil;
• Permanently closed containers;
• Motive power containers;
• Wastewater treatment facilities;
• Hot-mix asphalt and hot-mix asphalt containers;
• Residential heating oil containers at single family residences;
• Pesticide application equipment and related mix containers;
• Completely buried storage tanks subject to all the technical requirements of the underground storage tank regulations;
• Intra-facility gathering lines subject to U.S. Department of Transportation’s pipeline regulations; and Underground oil storage tanks at nuclear power generation facilities.

This article was authored by Barbara D. Little, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.