SPCC > Overview

SPCC stands for Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure. The need for an SPCC Plan relates to the storage of oil (defined by EPA generally as petroleum products but also include transformer oil, hydraulic oil, quenching oil and cooking oil) and the ability of your facility to protect against the discharge of oil to a receiving water body (EPA defines this as a "navigable water").

Your campus power plant may store a variety of different types of oil products in small containers and/or tanks. For example, your maintenance department might generate used oil during routine maintenance activities on power plant equipment - which may or may not be stored at the power plant. In addition, even if your campus power plant uses gas fired boilers to generate steam, backup fuel sources are often maintained and in many of those cases, fuel oil is stored in either underground or aboveground storage tanks. If your campus power plant stored oil of any kind on site, then it needs to consider whether certain Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) planning requirements for preventing the discharge of oil are applicable. Once a facility triggers these requirements, then it must address in its SPCC planning activities all oil stored on site, including areas where used oil might be stored.

Simply put, an SPCC Plan is required for facilities which due to their location, could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to surface water or adjoining shorelines and have:

• Total aboveground storage capacity of 1,320 gallons or more of oil (however, only containers or oil-containing equipment with a capacity equal to or greater than 55 gallons count toward the threshold); or
• A total oil underground storage capacity of 42,000 gallons or more (however, underground storage tanks subject to regulation under RCRA [40 CFR 280 or 281] are not included); or
• Been required by the EPA to prepare and implement an SPCC Plan.

If under a "worst case scenario" a release of oil could reach a nearby storm water catch basin and ultimately reach a wetland, creek, stream or other water body, EPA will likely require you to have an SPCC Plan (assuming you meet the storage threshold volumes noted above). The easiest way to visualize a "worst case scenario" is to think of a release of all the oil that is stored at your facility during a thunderstorm event. If oil can reach a water body during these release conditions, oil from your facility has the potential of reaching a water body and, therefore, you must comply with SPCC requirements.

You might also be asking yourself what to do if an oil discharge occurs (for example, causing a film, sheen or other discoloration of the water) from your facility? EPA has specific notification and reporting requirements in the event of an environmental release.

Continue on through this section of the EVC to learn more about SPCC requirements.