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May 22, 2014
The recently-passed Water Resources Development Act included a compromise on oil spill regulations.
Under current SPCC rules, a farm that stores more than 1320 gallons of oil in total of all aboveground containers, that could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to navigable waters of the US or adjoining shoreline, must develop, maintain and implement an oil spill prevention plan, called an SPCC plan. The plan requires farmers to construct a containment facility, like a dike or a basin, which must retain 110 percent of the fuel in the container. ASA has long supported an upward adjustment in the minimum capacity.
Under the new law, there is a temporary exemption for farms with aggregate storage capacity of less than 6,000 gallons and greater than 2,500 gallons and no history of spills, while EPA and USDA conduct a study to determine the threshold for exemption. Additionally, the bill excludes all containers on separate parcels that have a capacity that is less than 1,000 gallons from the aggregate storage capacity of a farm.
ASA applauds Congress for including these provisions in the legislation.
