When oil spills into navigable waters or onto adjoining shorelines, it can have harmful impacts on the environment, human health, and economic activity. EPA issued the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation at 40 CFR 112 to prevent oil spills and to assure that oil facility personnel are prepared to respond if a spill occurs. The regulation has two sets of requirements.
The first set of requirements is the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule. However, the second set of requirements is the Facility Response Plan (FRP) rule. The FRP program is designed to ensure that facilities have adequate oil spill response capabilities if those facilities, because of their location, could reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm to the environment by discharging oil into or on navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.
An FRP is a plan for responding (to the maximum extent practicable) to a worse case discharge and a substantial threat of such a discharge of oil, as well as for responding to small and medium discharges as appropriate. The idea is to ensure the availability of response equipment and personnel in a timely manner, to identify risks at the facility, to improve discharge prevention, and to aid local and regional authorities to better understand the hazards and response capabilities in their area.
A facility that could reasonably be expected to cause "substantial harm" to the environment by discharging oil into or on navigable waters is required to prepare and submit a Facility Response Plan (FRP) to the appropriate EPA Regional Office. A facility is reasonably expected to pose "substantial harm" if according to 112.20(f)(1), it:
Once an FRP are submitted to the region, the EPA Regional Administrator (RA) will review and determine if the facility has the potential, not just for substantial harm, but for significant and substantial harm. If the RA determines that the facility could cause significant and substantial harm, the FRP requires approval by the RA.
A facility may be a significant and substantial harm facility if it meets the over water transfer criterion, has a total oil storage capacity of 1 million gallons or more, and meets one or more of the other substantial harm factors mentioned above. Also, the RA may consider any of the additional significant and substantial harm factors set out in 112.20(f)(3), including these factors: