Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Plans

Many of you have likely heard of the SPCC regulations. I don't know a ton about them though I have worked with CAFO's and CFO's to develop spill response plans for their operations.

In any case, this post is a reminder for those of you who haven't started working on these that they are due by May 10, 2013. That may seem like a long time from now but if we have another dry spring and you're in a tractor cab by the middle of March again it may come pretty quickly.

Here is the link to the EPA SPCC Page for Farmers.

If you are a Tier 1 facility you can develop your plan yourself and self-certify. To be a Tier 1 facility you must have :

• A total aboveground oil storage capacity of 10,000 U.S. gallons or less;
• No aboveground oil storage containers with a capacity greater than 5,000 U.S. gallons; and
• No discharges to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines in the three years before the SPCC Plan is certified, as described below:

A single discharge greater than 1,000 gallons, or
Two discharges of oil each greater than 42 gallons within any 12-month period.

If your farm storage of oil or oil products exceeds the Tier 1 levels, your plan will need to be certified by a professional engineer.

For information on whether you need to file an SPCC Plan see this fact sheet: Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Program: Information for Farmers

And I'm sorry but I don't know what Could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to waters of the US or adjoining shorelines, such as interstate waters, intrastate lakes, rivers, and streams means. If you have a question about that, you should check with a plans development specialist. Though my guess is that with the number of ditches, field tile and small streams we find in Central Indiana, most area farmers will need to develop a plan.