The agricultural sector was enthusiastic about amendments to the federal oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasure (SPCC) rule, which were included in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) that has been passed by Congress and sent to the White House.  The amendments would adjust upward several SPCC oil and gasoline thresholds for farmers and would likely free many small farms now subject to SPCC requirements from the program. 

The bipartisan SPCC amendments were engineered by Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) and are intended to draw a distinction between the industrial facilities for which some say the SPCC program was designed and small farms that find almost all environmental regulations costly and difficult to follow. 

Aggregate storage capacity

The amendments would result in the following changes:

• Increase the 1,320-gallon minimum aggregate storage capacity that triggers compliance by farms with the SPCC program to 6,000 minimum aggregate gallons of storage capacity.
• Amend the minimum capacity of oil-containers that must be counted toward the aggregate capacity from 55 gallons to 1,000 gallons.
• Allow farmers to self-certify SPCC plans for farms with up to 20,000 gallons of aggregate storage capacity, an increase from the 10,000-gallon-capacity ceiling currently in force for self-certification. A professional engineer would still need to certify plans for farms that exceed this capacity. This provision would apply only to farms with no oil discharge history.

EPA study and rule

The amendments specify that within 1 year after enactment of the WRRDA, the EPA must conduct a study to determine a final aggregate-capacity threshold, which may not be more than 6,000 gal nor less than 2,500 gal, “based on a significant risk of discharge to water.”  The study must also assess the appropriateness of the 20,000-gal self-certification provision.  Within 18 months of completion of the study, the Agency would be required to issue a final rule codifying these or different levels.

Farm Bureau reacts

“Due to the change in the size of containers counted toward the SPCC aggregate fuel storage threshold, many farmers and ranchers will no longer be affected by this costly and burdensome regulation,” said Steve Nelson, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, in discussing the amendments.  “While the Farm Bureau and others have repeatedly encouraged EPA to revise the rule to be more workable for farmers and ranchers, we are very pleased by Congress’ action to force improvements.”

WRRDA (H.R. 3080)

The SPCC program amendments are in Section 1049.