SPCC Plans – PE Endorsements

In many regulations, requirements are very prescriptive, and you must develop a plan that addresses each “talking point” within the rule. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Plan (SPCC) regulation is similar in a lot of respects to this statement; however, the rule introduces the concept of a Professional Engineer’s (P.E.) best judgement. P.E’s. are required for every facility housing more than 10,000 gallons of oil, or one container larger than 5,000 gallons of oil (Tier II SPCC Plan).

Under the SPCC regulations, the P.E. is given the authority to make decisions on behalf of the facility – assuming the facility meets best and accepted engineering, industry and regulatory practices. These decisions can be given to tank inspections, containment options (design, amount of excess room left for precipitation, soil permeability, alternatives to static measures, etc.), training, procedures and tank designs, among other items. This affords a facility flexibility to comply with the regulation, but also puts a lot of the ownership on the P.E. If a P.E. chooses an alternative option that isn’t industry accepted or recognized and a facility then has an incident, there may potentially be a significant amount of attention put on the P.E. for endorsing an alternative.

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Witt O'Brien's will be hosting Troy Swackhammer, Mark Howard and Chris Perry, EPA Region 6 Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan and Facility Response Plan (FRP) Coordinator in Houston for an all-day Free SPCC Plan and FRP workshop on June 11th, 2020. Click here to RSVP.

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What does an endorsement look like? It is the P.E.’s seal, signature with date of seal and date of onsite review on a page in the SPCC Plan. The SPCC regulations also have a series of bullets that must accompany this seal, and it is these bullets what sparked today’s blog.

§112.3 Requirement to prepare and implement a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan.

(1) By means of this certification the Professional Engineer attests:

        i.           That he is familiar with the requirements of this part;

      ii.           That he or his agent has visited and examined the facility;

    iii.           That the Plan has been prepared in accordance with good engineering practice, including consideration of applicable industry standards, and with the requirements of this part;

    iv.           That procedures for required inspections and testing have been established; and

      v.           That the Plan is adequate for the facility.

    vi.           That, if applicable, for a produced water container subject to §112.9(c)(6), any procedure to minimize the amount of free-phase oil is designed to reduce the accumulation of free-phase oil and the procedures and frequency for required inspections, maintenance and testing have been established and are described in the Plan.

When a P.E. seals an SPCC Plan, the bulleted items listed above must be included. Although you are allowed to add to those listed, at a minimum these must be included within the plan. This may sound easy enough, but I’ve discovered it is not uncommon to see plans missing these items.

Another common issue is when a new P.E. comes in after the fact to reseal or add a technical amendment seal to an existing SPCC Plan and does not tie in the seal page. Meaning, the new seal page will be on a separate, loose piece of paper that doesn’t match the current template and there’s nothing on the new seal page saying it belongs to the old plan. This causes issues during audits, as it can be hard to prove. Picture a plan written in 2005 that the P.E. had actually intended his/her seal for the plan in question; that was a long time ago. So, to you P.E.s out there, ensure you mirror the other party’s template, or put a footnote stating that your endorsement page was intended for “this” SPCC Plan.

Need to read more? The current “bible” for all things related to SPCC regulations can be found in the EPA’s SPCC Guidance for Regional Inspectors website.

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 some compliance assistance, or just have a question? Please email John K. Carroll III ([email protected]) Associate Managing Director - Compliance Services or call at +1 281-320-9796.

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