Have you ever wondered why we never wash our rental cars before we return them to the rental company?
Because we don’t own the rental cars!
The same goes with writing environmental plans. If the employees who are responsible for implementing the plan (SPCC, stormwater, RCRA contingency, etc.) have not been involved in the development and preparation of the plans in any way, they are not going to have ownership of the plans and they are not likely to implement them.
Remember: Many of these plans (especially SPCC) are perfromance-based. That means if they are not implemented as written, you can end up with a violation.
Get your employees involved in some fashion before you finalize your palns. Have them review the draft. Get them involved.
Here are nine things you need to keep in mind about the Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan – commonly referred to as the SPCC Plan.
1.If you have more than 1320 gallons of oil (any kind of oil) and you have the potential to impact navigable waters of the United States, you must prepare an SPCC plan. For example, if your facility is anywhere close to a storm water drain, you have the potential to impact navigable waters.
2.Recent changes to the EPA regulations require you to only count containers that are 55 gallons or larger in capacities towards the 1320 gallons threshold.
3.Plant management must sign its Plan indicating it is prepared to commit financial resources to implement the plan. If your plan is not signed by management, you do not have a plan. EPA inspectors will always look for the signature.
4.You can do self-certification – without the signature of a professional Engineer – if you have less than ten thousand gallons onsite and you have not spilled more than a thousand gallons within 12 months in the last 3 years.
5.You must have an SPCC plan if you store more than 42000 gallons of oil in underground storage tanks.
6.SPCC plans must be implemented by July 1, 2009.
7.You must have secondary containment for your oil storage area. Containment can take the form of a dike, berm, or natural contour. The idea is to contain any spilled oil and keep it from reaching navigable waters.
8.Do not count oils that you do not own or control For example, do not count transformer oils in a substation on your property IF you are neither the owner nor operator of that substation.
9.Keep your plan simple and do what you say you are going to do. Never make commitment that you cannot keep. EPA inspectors will always look for evidence of implementation. For example, if you say in your plan you are going to do weekly inspection of your facility, the EPA inspector will be looking for a weekly inspection checklist from you.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind about your environmental plans.
The first thing to remember is that many plans are “performance based”. It means that it is not sufficient to say what you are going to do in a plan, you must actually do it! The SPCC (spill prevention control and countermeasures) plan is a classic example. If you – or the consultants who prepared your plan – say you are going to do weekly inspection of your oil storage area, you are expected to have a weekly inspection checklist to show the EPA inspector. The agency will always look for “evidence of implementation” on your part. So if you can’t do it, don’t put it down in your plan. The same goes for RCRA contingency plans, and storm water pollution prevention plan.
The second thing to remember is that you must sign and date your plans and keep them current. Many facilities have been cited for not having their SPCC plan signed off by their plant management. They also get a citation if the lists of personnel in the plans are not current.
The third thing to remember is to keep your training records up to date. Regulatory agencies have this saying: “If there is no training record, the training never happened.”
These are the most commonly cited violations because they are easy for the inspector to uncover.
Every business that stores hazardous wastes on site are required to have an emergency response plan. If you are a small quantity generator – one that generates less than 2200 lbs (approximately five 55-gallon containers) each calendar month – you do not need to have a WRITTEN plan. But you still have to have a plan.
An emergency response plan provides answers to the following questions:
Who is in charge?
Who are you going to call?
Where can you find the emergecny response equipment?
Do you know how to use the equipment?
Here is a short video clip from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) on this topic. Very instructive and straight forward. Enjoy the video.
EPA Region 9 and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board conducted on-site audits of City of Los Angeles’ and City Long Beach’s municipal storm water programs and conducted 55 individual storm water inspections of port tenants in May 2007.
As a result of this effort, on November 9, 2007, EPA issued an audit report and 20 Administrative Orders to facilities at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for being not in compliance with California’s Industrial General Permit.
One of the facilities was cited for:
Not identifying a pollution prevention team in its storm water pollution prevention plan (SWPPP)
Not maintaining sampling records of monthly visual storm water discharge observation
Not adequately implementing Best Management Practices (BMP) as identified in its SWPPP. In this case, the facility lists good housekeeping as a BMP. And yet the EPA inspectors observed significant amount of trash and white material on the ground at a location that drains toward the storm drain. There were also evidence of tank overfilling and spillage of glycol and latex paint.
These are common violations for many SWPPPs because facilities often ignore the written plans and fail to IMPLEMENT them. It is very easy for an inspector to look at the written plan and compare it to reality. More often than not, the written words and reality fail to match.
The issuance of 20 Administrative Orders by EPA is convincing proof that the agencies always LOOK for evidence of implementation when it comes to environmental plans such as SWPPP. It is NOT sufficient to just hire some consultants to prepare a nice looking plan for you. You have to actually do what the consultants have put into the plan.
So always manage your consultants and make sure they don’t put something in your plan that you can’t implement. Remember: they get paid whether you implement the plan or not. Work with the consultants and your staff who will be implementing the plan to make sure your staff has ownership of that plan.
Without ownership, it is likely no one will implement the plan.
Let me start the process by reminding everyone that the SPCC (Spill Prevention Control Countermeasure) program is a set of “performance-based” regulations. What that means is that your work has just started after you have completed writing your plan. You have to IMPLEMENT the plan as described. So it does you no good to have a nicely prepared plan sitting on your book shelf. Any thoughts? Comments?
Have you ever wondered why we never wash our rental cars before we return them to the rental company?
material on the ground at a location that drains toward the storm drain. There were also evidence of tank overfilling and spillage of glycol and latex paint.
So always manage your consultants and make sure they don’t put something in your plan that you can’t implement. Remember: they get paid whether you implement the plan or not. Work with the consultants and your staff who will be implementing the plan to make sure your staff has ownership of that plan. 
