Monday, December 21, 2009

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.

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