Tier I Qualified Facility SPCC Plan Template

Tier I qualified facility owners or operators can complete a self-certified Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan template in lieu of a full SPCC Plan. These facilities must meet the eligibility criteria for a qualified facility and have no individual aboveground oil storage containers greater than 5,000 gallons.

Note: Some states do not allow self-certification. You should consult with your state to ensure that SPCC Plan certification is not limited to Professional Engineers (PE). A list of State PE licensing board contacts is available.

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Template

This template is intended to help the owner or operator of a Tier I qualified facility develop a self-certified SPCC Plan. This template provides every SPCC rule requirement necessary for a Tier I qualified facility, which you must address first and then implement the Plan. You may complete this template either electronically or by hand.

To use this template, your facility must meet all of the applicability criteria of a Tier I qualified facility. To be a Tier I qualified facility, you must have:

  • A total aboveground oil storage capacity of 10,000 U.S. gallons or less;
  • No aboveground oil storage containers with a capacity greater than 5,000 U.S. gallons; and
  • No single oil discharge greater than 1,000 gallons, or
  • No two discharges greater than 42 gallons within any 12-month period to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines in the three years before the SPCC plan is certified.

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.

You can use this template 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. You must ensure that your Plan is an equivalent Plan that meets all applicable rule requirements of 40 CFR 112.6(a)(3).

Examples of Plans for Tier I Qualified Facilities

Provided below are two examples of completed and self-certified Tier I Qualified Facility SPCC Plans using the template found in Appendix G of the SPCC rule. Each completed Plan template is intended as a model to show how the template could be completed.

Each facility owner or operator has the flexibility to tailor the SPCC Plan to site-specific circumstances. Therefore, each example Plan is unique for the fictional scenario and cannot be adopted by the owner or operator of an actual facility.

Example 1: Tier I Qualified Facility Plan for a Farm

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.

For more information, see:
SPCC for Agriculture

Example 2: Tier I Qualified Facility Plan for an Automotive Service Garage

This scenario involves an automotive service garage and self-service gasoline station. The scenario describes the facility operations and layout, oil storage capacity, nearby waterways, and spill history. The garage in the scenario is not an actual facility, nor does it represent any actual facility or company.

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Last updated on December 4, 2023