Millions of gallons of oil is stored and delivered everyday through tanker ships, pipelines, and trucks in America. Oil, though a valuable energy resource, is extremely hazardous to soil, groundwater, freshwater, marine habitats, human, and animal life when spilled, as it contains toxic chemicals.

To conserve this valuable energy resource and to safeguard the nation’s health and environment, several spill prevention actions are being undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) Foremost among them is that oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan. It is a facility-specific plan that requires any facility that stores large quantities of oil in any form to develop and implement a scheme that spells out its preventive measures as well as its response capabilities.

To be more specific, it is mandatory for facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of above ground oil storage capacity using storage media such as tanks, containers, drums, portable totes, transformers, and oil-filled electrical equipment and facilities with 42,000 gallons of underground tank storage capacity to prepare a SPCC plan.

The SPCC plan covers the following areas, namely operating procedures for oil spill prevention; control measures for preventing a spill from reaching navigable waters; and countermeasure to contain, oil spill cleanup, and reduce the effects of the spill.

In addition to written management approval, the SPCC plan must also be certified by a registered professional engineer. This plan must be reviewed and documented once in every three years. It should also be amended if the facility undergoes any change in the design, construction, operation, or maintenance. These amendments too must be certified by a registered professional engineer.

The consequences of non-compliance of the SPCC plan are severe. If untrained personnel are used, or if a spill that enters a waterway is not reported, or if there is a lack of an adequate SPCC plan, it can result in fines up to $25,000 per day per.