EPA delaying SPCC regs

Washington-The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is delaying the effective compliance date of the final rule amending the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures (SPCC) regulations issued in the Federal Register on Dec. 5, 2008, according to the Agricultural Retailers Association. The SPCC amendments will now become effective on Jan. 14, 2010, which ARA said is a nine-month delay from the original compliance date proposed. ARA said it has worked closely with EPA officials over the last five years to ease SPCC requirements for agricultural businesses in the development of plans for preventing spills of petroleum and other types of oil. ARA said the rules potentially cover facilities such as farms, petroleum refiners, chemical facilities, formulators, plants that store animal and plant fats or vegetable oils, and agricultural retailers. ARA said the new SPCC regulations include exemptions for sprayer application equipment and mobile refueling units, allow integrity inspections by the facility operator without requiring the use of a professional engineer, and allow self-certification for qualifying facilities under 10,000 gallons. With the modifications proposed on Dec. 5, EPA expects to encourage greater compliance with the SPCC regulations, ARA said. The amendments did not change any regulatory requirement for owners or operators of facilities in operation before Aug. 16, 2002, to develop, implement, and maintain an SPCC plan in accordance with the SPCC regulations then in effect, ARA noted. Such facilities are still required to maintain their existing SPCC plans until the applicable dates for revising and implementing new plans go into effect under the latest EPA amendments.