Farmers, don’t forget about the SPCC rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) rule in 2010. This rule governs oil and fuel storage for many businesses, including farms.

The compliance deadline for farms is November 10, 2010. However, EPA has proposed an extension of the compliance date to November 10, 2011. At this point, it is unknown whether the extension will be finalized. Therefore, November 10, 2010 is the current compliance date.

While the EPA may change the compliance date from November 2010 to November 2011, EPA says that this date applies to farms that have come into operation since 2002. According to the agency, farms in operation before 2002 are already under the requirements of the SPCC rule and should have a plan in place or updated to comply with the new requirements.

The SPCC rule pertains to facilities, including farms that have aboveground oil storage with an aggregate capacity greater than 1,320 U.S. gallons, or completely buried oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 gallons. Single-family residence home oil containers are exempt as are oil tanks smaller than 55 gallons. EPA has also proposed to exempt milk tanks under certain circumstances, but that exemption has not been finalized. Therefore, milk containers currently have to be added into the aggregate oil capacity calculation. The rule establishes a tiered structure of compliance. For smaller facilities (aggregate storage capacity of 10,000 gallons or less) the agency developed two tiers (I and II). These smaller facilities must have had no single discharge exceeding 1,000 gallons to navigable waters within the 3 years prior to the date the SPCC is certified and no two discharges of oil to navigable waters exceeding 42 gallons within any 12 month time frame.

The main difference between the tiers is that Tier I facilities were defined as those facilities with 10,000 gallons or less aggregate storage capacity that have no individual aboveground oil container greater than 5,000 gallons. Tier I facilities can self-certify and use an EPA-created plan template without having to have a professional engineer (PE) certified plan.

Nancy Erickson from Illinois Farm Bureau who handles this information will be one of our speakers at the Legislative Update on Tuesday, August 31 at 7 p.m. at the Carroll County Fairgrounds.

Don’t forget your 20010-2009 Carroll County Farm Bureau dues are due September 1. As you are paying them, the most important thing you cannot forget are the benefits that are available to you as a member. There is an array of benefits for each and everyone. We have our local discount program where a number of businesses provide discounts to Carroll County Farm Bureau members. There also was a flyer in your dues with all the statewide benefits. If you ever have any questions on any of the discounts, please give our office a call.