Overview

In 1973, EPA issued the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation, which is codified at 40 CFR Part 112, to address the oil spill prevention provisions contained in the Clean Water Act of 1972. The regulation forms the basis of EPA's oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasures, or SPCC, program, which seeks to prevent oil spills from certain aboveground and underground storage tanks. In particular, the regulation applies to non-transportation-related facilities that:

• Have an aboveground storage capacity of more than 660 gallons in a single tank, an aggregate aboveground storage capacity of more than 1,320 gallons, or a total underground storage capacity of 42,000 gallons; and
• Could reasonably be expected to discharge oil in harmful quantities into navigable waters of the United States.

The regulation requires each owner or operator of a regulated facility to prepare an SPCC Plan. The Plan is required to address the facility's design, operation, and maintenance procedures established to prevent spills from occurring, as well as countermeasures to control, contain, clean up, and mitigate the effects of an oil spill that could affect navigable waters.

Following the massive Ashland oil spill in 1988, EPA formed the SPCC Task Force to examine federal regulations governing oil spills from aboveground storage tanks. The SPCC Task Force recommended that EPA clarify certain provisions in the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation, establish additional technical requirements for regulated facilities, and require the preparation of facility-specific response plans. In 1990, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act which, among other things, required certain oil storage facilities to prepare facility response plans.

In response, EPA proposed revisions to the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation in two phases. EPA proposed its first set of revisions to the regulation on October 22, 1991. These proposed revisions, in addition to strengthening and clarifying previous regulatory language, outline the additional requirements for regulated oil storage and handling facilities. On July 1, 1994, EPA finalized a second set of revisions to the Oil Pollution Prevention regulations. The revisions incorporate the new requirements added by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that direct facility owners or operators to prepare, and in some cases submit to the federal government, plans for responding to a worst-case discharge of oil.