Who Needs an SPCC Plan? It could be YOU!
Posted on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 @ 07:39 AM
The short answer is many people need one, and most likely, so do you. An SPCC plan is a "Spill Prevention, Control & Countermeasure Plan", required by Federal law if you have over 1,320 gallons of any type of petroleum products at your plant. This means diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, heating oil, motor oil, used oil, lube oil, gear oil, form release oil, etc. Admixtures are NOT included, since they aren't a petroleum product. Because of the low threshold, most plants need one.
I tend to see a lot of confusion over SPCC plans. When I visit plant sites and ask about an SPCC plan, most people usually say they already have a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan. Great, but that's not an SPCC plan. They are two very different plans and one does not cover for the other.
So then, what exactly is an SPCC plan? An SPCC plan outlines the location and type of petroleum products stored at the site. It also includes steps being taken to ensure that there's no spills to any navigable waters of the US, and what steps would occur if there was a spill or leak (we're talking emergency preparedness here). The most common requirements are secondary containment, inspections, training, and recordkeeping. For a normal plant, an SPCC plan shouldn't be a 100+ page document, but a few pages in length is probably inadequate.
Click here for a more detailed article written by me on SPCC plans.
The penalties for not having an SPCC plan can be severe, and are part of the focus of the USEPA enforcement effort targeting the concrete and aggregate industries. If you need an SPCC plan, get one NOW. Let us know if we can be of any help.
Follow us online...