Contingency planning

Scope

The National Contingency Plan (NCP) applies to:

• Discharges of oil into or on the navigable watersof the United States or adjoining shorelines.
• Releases into the environment of hazardous substances, and pollutants or contaminants which may present an imminent and substantial danger to public health or welfare of the United States.

The NCP provides for efficient, coordinated, and effective response to discharges of oil and releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants in accordance with the authorities of CERCLA and the Clean Water Act (CWA). It may also activate the appropriate national response organization. The NCP specifies responsibilities among the federal, state, and local governments and describes resources that are available for response.

The NCP also addresses:

• Requirements for federal, regional, and area contingency plans. It also summarizes state and local requirements under SARA Title III.
• Procedures for undertaking removal actions under the CWA.
• Procedures for undertaking response actions under CERCLA.
• Procedures for involving state governments in the initiation, development, selection, and implementation of response actions under CERCLA.
• Listing of federal trustees for natural resources for purposes of CERCLA and the CWA.
• Procedures for the participation of other persons in response actions.
• Procedures for compiling and making available an administrative record for response actions.
• National procedures for the use of dispersants and other chemicals in removals under the CWA and response actions under CERCLA.

Additionally, the NCP applies to and is in effect when the Federal Response Plan and some or all its Emergency Support Functions are activated.

Regulatory citations

• 40 CFR 300 — National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan

Key definitions

• Activation: Notification by telephone or other manner or, when required, the assembly of some or all appropriate members of the emergency response team.
• CERCLA: The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986.
• Chemical agents: Those elements, compounds, or mixtures that coagulate, disperse, dissolve, emulsify, foam, neutralize, precipitate, reduce, solubilize, oxidize, concentrate, congeal, entrap, fix, make the pollutant mass more rigid or viscous, or otherwise make it easier to remove pollutant from the water. Chemical agents include biological additives, dispersants, sinking agents, miscellaneous oil spill control agents, and burning agents (but not sorbents.)
• Discharge: Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of oil, but excludes discharges in compliance with a permit under section 402 of the CWA and discharges resulting from circumstances identified and reviewed and made a part of the public record with respect to a permit issued or modified under section 402 of the CWA. For purposes of the NCP, discharge also means substantial threat of discharge.
• Facility: Any building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned treatment works), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft, or any site or area, where a hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise come to be located; but does not include any consumer product in consumer use or any vessel.
• Federal Response Plan (FRP): The agreement signed by 27 federal departments and agencies in April 1987 and developed under the authorities of the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 and the Disaster Relief Act of 1974, as amended by the Stafford Disaster Relief Act of 1988.
• Hazard Ranking System (HRS): The method used by EPA to evaluate the relative potential of hazardous substance releases to cause health or safety problems, or ecological or environmental damage.
• National Priorities List (NPL): The list, compiled by EPA pursuant to CERCLA section 105, of uncontrolled hazardous substance releases in the United States that are priorities for long-term remedial evaluation and response.
• National response system (NRS): The mechanism for coordinating response actions by all levels of government. The NRS is capable of expanding or contracting to accommodate the response effort required by the size or complexity of the discharge or release.
• On-scene coordinator (OSC): The federal official predesignated by EPA or the USCG to coordinate and direct responses under subpart D, or the government official designated by the lead agency to coordinate and direct removal actions under subpart E of the NCP.
• Onshore facility: Any facility (including, but not limited to, motor vehicles and rolling stock) of any kind located in, on, or under any land or non-navigable waters within the United States; and any facility (including, but not limited to, motor vehicles and rolling stock) of any kind located in, on, or under any land within the United States other than submerged land.
• On-site: The areal extent of contamination and all suitable areas in very close proximity to the contamination necessary for implementation of the response action.
• Pollutant or contaminant: Any element, substance, compound, or mixture, including disease-causing agents, which after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or their offspring. The term does not include petroleum, including crude oil.
• Release: Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant). It does not include any release which results in exposure to persons solely within a workplace; emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine; release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident; and the normal application of fertilizer. For purposes of the NCP, release also means threat of release.
• Size classes of discharges: Refers to the following size classes of oil discharges. Any oil discharge that poses a substantial threat to public health or welfare of the United States or the environment or results in significant public concern shall be classified as a major discharge regardless of the following quantitative measures:
  1. Minor discharge means a discharge to the inland waters of less than 1,000 gallons of oil or a discharge to the coastal waters of less than 10,000 gallons of oil.
  2. Medium discharge means a discharge of 1,000 to 10,000 gallons of oil to the inland waters or a discharge of 10,000 to 100,000 gallons of oil to the coastal waters.
  3. Major discharge means a discharge of more than 10,000 gallons of oil to the inland waters or more than 100,000 gallons of oil to the coastal waters.
• Size classes of releases: Refers to the following size classifications:
  Minor release means a release of a quantity of hazardous substance(s), pollutant(s), or contaminant(s) that poses minimal threat to public health or welfare of the United States or the environment.
  1. Minor release means a release of a quantity of hazardous substance(s), pollutant(s), or contaminant(s) that poses minimal threat to public health or welfare of the United States or the environment.
  2. Medium release means a release not meeting the criteria for classification as a minor or major release.
  3. Major release means a release of any quantity of hazardous substance(s), pollutant(s), or contaminant(s) that poses a substantial threat to public health or welfare of the United States or the environment or results in significant public concern.
• Spill of national significance (SONS): A spill that due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge.

Summary of requirements

• National Contingency Planning calls for federal agencies to:
  • Plan for emergencies and develop procedures for addressing oil discharges and releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants;
  • Coordinate their planning, preparedness, and response activities with one another;
  • Coordinate their planning, preparedness, and response activities with affected states, local governments, and private entities; and
  • Make available those facilities or resources that may be useful in a response situation, consistent with agency authorities and capabilities.