Have you experienced a spill in 2024? Do you fall under OPA90? December 31st is around the corner, PREP!
John K. Carroll III
Associate Managing Director at Witt O'Brien's, LLC, Part of the Ambipar Group
(This article was written without AI tools, i.e., ChatGPT.)
Time goes by incredibly fast as the year draws to an end. If you’re not careful, you may miss the deadline for getting critical, required compliance activities completed. As of today, it’s not too late to knock them out, but if you procrastinate, 2024 will get away from you.
Here is my annual end-of-year reminder for those in the oil industry.
If you fall under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90), inland operators, there’s a 99.99% probability that you adhere to the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP), which is accepted by all agencies regulated under OPA90.
Even though all of these agencies, (The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), and United States Coast Guard (USCG)), state that you may develop an “alternative program” in lieu of the PREP program, you do not want to be in the 0.01% that’s doing this.? It’s a waste of time!
If you’re unfamiliar with PREP, below are a few summary tables.
EPA and USCG PREP Triennial Cycle
PHMSA Triennial Cycle
Has your facility experienced a spill this year, or?has it conducted?some form of a hybrid exercise?
Section 1.2 of PREP says: Plan holders may take credit for exercise requirements that are met by activities conducted in conjunction with other exercises, or during response to an actual incident, if the PREP exercise objectives are met, the response was evaluated, and the proper records are maintained.
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If your facility experienced a spill this year or conducted a hybrid exercise this year, you may have already fulfilled PREP requirements for your annual incident management team exercise. It’s a good idea to review these early to see if you can take credit for them to meet the requirements. If you wait until the end of the year to do your review, make sure you have enough time to complete the required incident management team exercise. There are only a handful of work weeks left this year due to holiday schedules and vacations. As such, I highly recommend you conduct your incident management team exercise as soon as possible.
The first step is to determine where you are on your triennial cycle and prepare accordingly. Your facility/pipeline response plan should have the volumes, scenario examples, and pertinent details you need to facilitate an exercise. Keep in mind that you must document everything to receive the PREP credit.
A couple of years back, I posted the following article, which gives insights on how to properly document your exercise: PREP Documentation – EPA OPA90 Facility
One item many overlook under OPA90 is the annual review requirements, which go hand-in-hand with annual incident management team exercises. So, as the expression goes, “Knock out two birds with one stone.” Learn more here: OPA90 Annual Review - Did you forget again?
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Bi-annual equipment deployment exercises are like annual incident management team exercises. If you own your own equipment, you may be required to do them. If you are required to do this exercise, you should do it in conjunction with your incident management team exercise. Read more here.
One question that?often arises?is, “What if I am regulated by EPA and USCG, or EPA and PHMSA (complex facility)? How do I handle their individual PREP requirements?” Section 2.3.9.2 of PREP addresses this question. In layman's terms, if you’re regulated by more than one agency, you can take credit for the different requirements based on one exercise as long as you address each agency’s individual PREP requirements. This means?you wouldn’t have to do a specific worst-case discharge exercise for both USCG and an EPA. Instead, you?could do one if you meet the applicable PREP requirements for both.
Complexes are facilities that must meet the requirements of more than one federal agency. For example, a facility that has oil storage tanks, a pipeline, and a waterfront oil transfer dock is considered to be a complex since it must meet the requirements of EPA, PHMSA, and the USCG.
Complexes would only be required to conduct one exercise to meet all agency requirements for that particular type of exercise. For example, if a quarterly notification exercise is required by all three agencies regulating the complex, one notification exercise per quarter would satisfy the requirements for all three regulatory agencies.
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Lastly, many overlook the unannounced exercise requirement. As noted in the table above, this is separate from your incident management team exercise. PREP offers an Emergency Procedure Drill that can fulfill this requirement, but an actual spill response could also satisfy it. The key takeaway?is that you must do two drills a year. There are different ways to accomplish this (and if you own equipment, you’ll need to do additional drills). Read 2.3.7.1 of PREP for more information: it clearly describes what is needed?and required, and the various options available to fulfill this.
Witt O’Brien’s training and response group assists companies nationally and globally, so if you need help, let me know.
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For a complete listing of archived articles and compliance insights, click here. Past articles cover training requirements, clarification of additional unclear elements within the above rules, and more.
We are here to help solve your compliance questions and challenges. If you need compliance assistance or have questions, please email John K. Carroll III ([email protected]), Associate Managing Director – Compliance Services, or call +1 954-625-9373.
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