US Farms Must Prepare Spill Plan
2011-10-20 11:30:26 - Spill International
The US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) programme requires farms and other regulated facilities to prepare a SPCC Plan to prevent oil spills into waters. Farms that were in operation on or before 16th August 2002 must maintain or amend their existing plan by 10th November 2011. All farms that started operation after 16th August 2002 but before 10th November 2011 must prepare and use a plan on or before the same day.
The EPA page on the SPCC rule site offers support for farms and gins prevent oil spills, as well as control a spill should one occur. Farmers can find a template and documents, including one on how to fill out the template and contain background information for the example farm.
Many farmers will need to have their plan certified by a Professional Engineer (PE). However, a farmer may be eligible to self-certify his plan if the farm has a total oil storage capacity between 1,320 and 10,000 gallons in above ground containers with no single container larger than 5,000 gallons and the farm has a good spill history.
