Title: Reporting Oil Spills: Everything You Need To Know
Headings: Reporting Oil Spills: Everything You Need To Know
Reporting Oil Spills: Everything You Need To Know
Reporting Oil Spills: Everything You Need To Know
Oil Spills: Everything You Need To Know
Understanding Oil Spills
How to Report
EPA Oil Spill Program Contacts
How Reports Are Handled
Overview of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990
Discharge of Oil Regulation (40 CFR 110)
Oil Spill Reporting Exemptions
Properly Functioning Vessel Engines
Research and Development Releases
NPDES-Permitted Releases
Discharges Permitted Under MARPOL
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Content: Area Committees -- composed of federal, state, and local government officials -- must develop detailed, location-specific Area Contingency Plans; and owners or operators of vessels and certain facilities that pose a serious threat to the environment must prepare their own facility response plans. Finally, the OPA increased penalties for regulatory noncompliance, broadened the response and enforcement authorities of the Federal government, and preserved State authority to establish law governing oil spill prevention and response. In 1973, EPA issued the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation, which is codified at 40 CFR Part 112, to address the oil spill prevention provisions contained in the Clean Water Act of 1972. The regulation forms the basis of EPA's oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasures, or SPCC, program, which seeks to prevent oil spills from certain aboveground and underground storage tanks. In particular, the regulation applies to non-transportation-related facilities that: Have an aboveground storage capacity of more than 660 gallons in a single tank, an aggregate aboveground storage capacity of more than 1,320 gallons, or a total underground storage capacity of 42,000 gallons; and
Could reasonably be expected to discharge oil in harmful quantities into navigable waters of the United States. The regulation requires each owner or operator of a regulated facility to prepare an SPCC Plan. The Plan is required to address the facility's design, operation, and maintenance procedures established to prevent spills from occurring, as well as countermeasures to control, contain, clean up, and mitigate the effects of an oil spill that could affect navigable waters.