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Mar 10, 2009 9:47 AM

The Environmental Protection Agency (SPCC) amendments were finalized in December and set to take effect February 3, 2009, but were delayed by an Obama administration move for review.

That sparked a response from the New England Fuel Institute (NEFI) and its Regulatory Counsel Mark S Morgan, who recently submitted comments to the EPA on the regulatory review of key Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) amendments that NEFI believes are vital to heating oil dealers and petroleum marketers that operate bulk plants, according to information in the March 6 issue of NEFI's newsletter, NEON.

"The SPCC amendments important to heating oil dealers and petroleum marketers include a provision that NEFI fought hard to win--an exemption from the sized exemption from sized secondary containment requirements for cargo tank vehicles containing product that are parked overnight at bulk plants," NEON reported.

"NEFI has met with the EPA on the issue several times over the past six weeks and received assurances that the parked cargo tank vehicle amendment is relatively safe," NEON added.

Other amendments in the rule that also are at risk but likely safe: streamlined SPCC plans for small bulk plants; flexibility on bulk plant security measures; exemption from SPCC secondary containment requirements for loading racks for underground storage tanks; flexibility on defining the geographic limits of facilities; and flexibility for tank inspection and integrity testing requirements, NEON reported.