SPCC Plans and FRPs, do plan signatures expire?

In the regulatory world, virtually all permits, as well as required plans/documents, have time limits. Generally, these time limits are three years, five years and ten years. There’s no hard and fast rule --it depends on the agency, state, activity, among other things. The actions one must do at the end of these time limits vary too.

In some cases, starting over and submitting a new permit for authorization is required, while in other instances redoing the plan to send back in for reapproval is a must. While other times, the plan requires nothing other than a note stating the plan was reviewed during this time period. Finally, in rarer occurrences, such as Louisiana’s general industrial storm water permit, the state will grant an automatic continuation with no action for a permittee.

With all of this being said, it’s no wonder that many companies remain in a state of perpetual confusion on what do with regards to permits and plans. To stay ahead of this, many companies will make blanket policies, towing the most stringent requirement, and applying to all such programs they have. While this isn’t technically an incorrect approach, is this best practice? I’m not going to answer that directly; however, this tactic may cause confusion when employees leave a company, or should company representatives call on their consultants for assistance.

This confusion comes up often with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan and Facility Response Plan (FRP) rules. Questions like these often arise:

• I have a new manager; does he need resign my FRP/SPCC Plan?
• Our president has retired; do we need to get the SPCC Plan/FRP resigned?
• We’re doing our five-year reviews; do we need to get the SPCC Plan/FRP resigned?

These are all valid questions, and the quick answer to all of these is ‘no’. If you conduct a search in these two rules for words signature or sign, you will only find them a handful of times. To be exact, you will only find them used in Appendix C and Appendix F of the rule. In addition, if you look at the EPA’s SPCC Field Inspection and Plan Review Checklist, outside of it confirming reports have been signed off properly, it only asks if the SPCC Plan has a completed and signed Certification of the Applicability of the Substation Harm Criteria form. It does not ask the auditor to confirm anything else with regards to management signatures. This is also the case in the EPA’s FRP Field Inspection and Plan Review Checklist (available upon request).

One area that causes confusion too, are the rules use of “approval of management,” as in the below example.

§112.7  General requirements for Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plans.

If you are the owner or operator of a facility subject to this part you must prepare a Plan in accordance with good engineering practices. The Plan must have the full approval of management at a level of authority to commit the necessary resources to fully implement the Plan. You must prepare the Plan in writing. If you do not follow the sequence specified in this section for the Plan, you must prepare an equivalent Plan acceptable to the Regional Administrator that meets all of the applicable requirements listed in this part, and you must supplement it with a section cross-referencing the location of requirements listed in this part and the equivalent requirements in the other prevention plan. If the Plan calls for additional facilities or procedures, methods, or equipment not yet fully operational, you must discuss these items in separate paragraphs, and must explain separately the details of installation and operational start-up. As detailed elsewhere in this section, you must also:

If you look closely, it doesn’t state a signature is required. Most, and even in the EPA’s example SPCC Plan, do put a signature place holder for these statements; however, it can simply be done with a statement. Being so, there is no expiration, or need for a new signature as things change, as it is not written in the rules as such.

Anything missing in the below two rule citations?

§112.5  Amendment of Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan by owners or operators.

(b) Notwithstanding compliance with paragraph (a) of this section, complete a review and evaluation of the SPCC Plan at least once every five years from the date your facility becomes subject to this part; or, if your facility was in operation on or before August 16, 2002, five years from the date your last review was required under this part. As a result of this review and evaluation, you must amend your SPCC Plan within six months of the review to include more effective prevention and control technology if the technology has been field-proven at the time of the review and will significantly reduce the likelihood of a discharge as described in §112.1(b) from the facility. You must implement any amendment as soon as possible, but not later than six months following preparation of any amendment. You must document your completion of the review and evaluation, and must sign a statement as to whether you will amend the Plan, either at the beginning or end of the Plan or in a log or an appendix to the Plan. The following words will suffice, “I have completed review and evaluation of the SPCC Plan for (name of facility) on (date), and will (will not) amend the Plan as a result.

§112.20  Facility response plans.

(4) Review each response plan periodically thereafter on a schedule established by the Regional Administrator provided that the period between plan reviews does not exceed five years.

Are you catching on? There’s nothing about new signatures. You can read more on these below.

• What is an SPCC Plan Five-Year Review?
• What is an EPA FRP Five-Year Review?

Bottom line, neither the SPCC Plan or FRP rule require new signatures during plan updates or change in personnel. However, the EPA does suggest you do during the five-year plan reviews, but there is nothing technically in the rule requiring you to do this. Like the original seal in an SPCC Plan, these signatures don’t expire, as they were made in good standing during the time of development.

For a complete listing of archived blogs and compliance insights, click here. Past blogs cover training requirements, clarification on additional confusing elements within the above rules and much more.

We are here to help solve your compliance questions and challenges. Need compliance assistance, or simply have a question? Email John Carroll Associate Managing Director – Compliance Services or call +1 281-320-9796.

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