Back

ASA Welcomes Delay in Enforcement of SPCC Rule

Mar 28, 2013

(EPA photo)

(EPA photo)

Within the passage and enactment of the Continuing Resolution this week, lawmakers postponed a regulation that would have required on-farm tanks and drums with oil-storage capacity to have spill-prevention dikes in place. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Spill-Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) rule, for which ASA supported postponement, was delayed through Sept. 30. The delay was a result of an amendment offered by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

If implemented, the rule would have required that oil storage facilities with a capacity of over 1,320 gallons make structural improvements to reduce the possibility of oil spills. The plan would have required farmers to construct a containment facility, like a dike or a basin, which must retain 110 percent of the fuel in the container.

ASA is supporting legislation that would adjust the minimum capacity upward to 10,000 gallons while the aggregate level on a production facility would move to 42,000 gallons.