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Tier I Qualified Facility SPCC Plan Template

This template is intended to help the owner or operator of a Tier I qualified facility develop a self-certified Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan. To use this template, your facility must meet all of the applicability criteria of a Tier I qualified facility listed under §112.3(g)(1) and (2) of the SPCC rule. This template provides every SPCC rule requirement necessary for a Tier I qualified facility, which you must address and implement. You may complete this template either electronically or by hand on a printed copy.

This template may be used to comply with the SPCC regulation or use it as a model and modify it as necessary to meet your facility-specific needs. If you modify the template, your Plan must include a section cross-referencing the location of each applicable requirement of the SPCC rule and you must ensure that your Plan is an equivalent Plan that meets all applicable rule requirements of 40 CFR 112.6(a)(3).

To meet the Tier I applicability criteria, the facility must have:

  1. a total aboveground oil storage capacity of 10,000 U.S. gallons or less;
  2. no aboveground oil storage containers with a capacity greater than 5,000 U.S. gallons; and
  3. in the 3 years prior to the date the SPCC Plan is certified, had no single discharge of oil to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines exceeding 1,000 U.S. gallons, or no two discharges of oil to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines each exceeding 42 U.S. gallons within any 12-month period.*

SPCC Qualified Facilities Fact Sheet (PDF) (4 pp, 103K, about PDF)

*Please note: this does not include discharges that are the result of natural disasters, acts of war, or terrorism. When determining the applicability of this SPCC reporting requirement, the gallon amount(s) specified (either 1,000 or 42) refers to the amount of oil that actually reaches navigable waters or adjoining shorelines not the total amount of oil spilled. EPA considers the entire volume of the discharge to be oil for the purposes of these reporting requirements.

Example Tier I Qualified Facility SPCC Plan

Provided below is an example of a completed and self-certified Tier I Qualified Facility SPCC Plan using the template found in Appendix G of the SPCC Rule. This example Plan illustrates how to develop an SPCC Plan for a Tier I qualified facility using a farm scenario. The scenario describes the facility operations and layout, oil storage capacity, nearby waterways, and spill history. The farm in the scenario is not an actual facility, nor does it represent any actual facility or company.

The completed Plan template is intended as a model for illustration only. The SPCC rule is designed to give each facility owner/operator the flexibility to tailor the facility's SPCC Plan to site-specific circumstances. Therefore, this example Plan is unique for the corresponding farm scenario and should not be adopted by the owner/operator of an actual facility.

To use this template, your facility must meet all of the applicability criteria of a Tier I qualified facility listed under both §112.3(g)(1) and (2) of the SPCC rule. A separate document guides you through SPCC applicability to help you determine if the rule applies to your facility. The document also explains how to certify your Plan; helps you determine if you are eligible to use the SPCC Plan template; and summarizes the spill prevention measures to include in your Plan. This document incorporates, and does not modify, existing EPA policy and guidance on SPCC applicability.

*Please note: the scope of STI SP001 Standard for the Inspection of Aboveground Storage Tanks by the Steel Tank Institute (STI) includes the inspection and testing of aboveground shop-fabricated tanks, small field-erected tanks, portable containers, and associated secondary containment. The standard is copyrighted. However, the periodic tank inspection checklists in Appendix C of the standard are not copyrighted and are available here. Utilization of the checklists alone does not constitute compliance with the standard. The standard is available from STI at the following web address: https://www.steeltank.com/Publications/PublicationsIndex/tabid/108/Default.aspx Exit EPA Disclaimer.

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Secondary Containment Calculation Worksheets

Example and blank worksheets used to calculate secondary containment capacity are available below to help you to comply with the secondary containment requirements of the SPCC rule. These blank worksheets address four specific scenarios and may not be valid for every facility. Although the SPCC rule does not require you to show the calculations of sized secondary containment in your Plan, you should maintain documentation of secondary containment calculations to demonstrate compliance to an EPA inspector.

*Disclaimer: Please note that these are simplified calculations for qualified facilities that assume: 1) the secondary containment is designed with a flat floor; 2) the wall height is equal for all four walls; and 3) the corners of the secondary containment system are 90 degrees. Additionally, the calculations do not include displacement for support structures or foundations. For Professional Engineer (PE) certified Plans, the PE may need to account for site-specific conditions associated with the secondary containment structure which may require modifications to these sample calculations to ensure good engineering practice.

*Please note: Word versions are fill-in the blank only. PDF forms compute calculations.

Additional Resources:

SPCC for Agriculture
SPCC Train the Trainer for Agriculture

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