Does My Dealership Need an SPCC Plan? The 1,320-Gallon Question

1.Start With the Three Basic SPCC Questions

EPA says a facility must meet several basic conditions before the SPCC rule applies. For most dealerships, the relevant questions are whether the facility is non-transportation-related, whether it stores, transfers, uses or consumes oil, whether it exceeds the applicable storage-capacity threshold, and whether a discharge could reasonably be expected to reach navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.

Dealerships plainly use and store oil. The questions that usually require more attention are the capacity calculation and the potential for a discharge to reach water.

Do not make the mistake of treating the 1,320-gallon number as the entire rule. It is an important threshold, but it is not the only applicability criterion.

2.The Rule Says Greater Than 1,320 Gallons

EPA's aboveground threshold is an aggregate storage capacity greater than 1,320 U.S. gallons.

That wording is worth noticing. A facility with exactly 1,320 gallons of countable aboveground capacity has not exceeded the federal aboveground threshold. A facility with 1,321 gallons has.

More importantly, EPA looks at the capacity of the containers, not the amount of oil sitting in them on a particular day.

A 500-gallon tank counts as 500 gallons even if there are only 75 gallons in it when you walk through the shop.

3.Count Containers That Can Hold 55 Gallons or More

When determining the 1,320-gallon aboveground threshold, EPA says to count oil storage containers with a capacity of 55 gallons or greater.

That means a standard 55-gallon drum counts. Smaller containers generally do not count toward this particular threshold.

This is where dealership calculations can go sideways. Someone remembers the large used oil tank but overlooks several 55-gallon drums, a bulk new-oil tank, a waste-oil container in another part of the property or qualifying oil-filled operating equipment.

The calculation is facility-wide. Do not stop counting when you leave the service department.

4.It Is Not Just Used Oil

One of the most common misconceptions is that SPCC is a "used oil tank rule." It is not.

EPA's definition and examples of oil are broad. Depending on how and where they are stored, petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, lubricating oil and hydraulic oil can be part of the facility's SPCC evaluation.

At a dealership, the inventory may include a used oil tank, bulk engine-oil tanks, transmission fluid, hydraulic oil and fuel storage. The correct question is not, "How big is our waste-oil tank?" It is, "What qualifying oil storage capacity do we have across this facility?"

5.Some Things Do Not Count Toward the 1,320 Gallons

Not every drop of oil on the property belongs in the threshold calculation.

EPA excludes containers with a capacity of less than 55 gallons from the aboveground capacity calculation. Permanently closed containers also are not counted. The rule also excludes motive-power containers, such as the fuel tanks or hydraulic systems that are part of cars, trucks and certain mobile equipment.

That means you do not add up the gasoline sitting in every customer's vehicle on the lot.

Underground tanks can involve a separate SPCC threshold and separate regulatory questions. Completely buried storage capacity has a federal SPCC threshold of greater than 42,000 gallons, and certain underground storage tanks subject to the technical requirements of EPA's UST rules are exempt from SPCC requirements.

6.Do Not Forget Oil-Filled Equipment

A container does not necessarily have to look like a tank or drum to count.

EPA states that oil contained in operating equipment must be considered when determining facility storage capacity when the equipment is capable of holding 55 gallons or more.

For dealerships, that makes it worth looking beyond the obvious storage tanks. If a piece of shop or facility equipment contains a significant volume of hydraulic or lubricating oil, determine its capacity rather than assuming it does not count because the oil is "inside the equipment."

7.Could a Spill Reasonably Reach Water?

Exceeding the storage threshold does not, by itself, finish the SPCC applicability analysis. EPA also asks whether the facility, because of its location, could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.

This needs to be evaluated based on the geography and drainage of the site. Look at storm drains, ditches, slopes, nearby streams and other pathways oil could follow.

EPA says the determination should consider geography and location. Manmade features that might contain a spill, such as dikes or other structures, are not supposed to be used to eliminate an otherwise reasonable expectation of a discharge when making the applicability determination.

In practical terms, "we have a spill kit" is not the same thing as "a spill could not reasonably reach water."

8.A Simple Dealership Example

Suppose a dealership has a 500-gallon used oil tank, a 500-gallon bulk motor-oil tank, a 275-gallon oil tote and one 55-gallon drum of qualifying oil.

The total countable aboveground capacity is 1,330 gallons.

It does not matter that the used oil tank is half empty, the bulk oil tank was just pumped down or the 55-gallon drum contains only ten gallons. The calculation is based on storage capacity.

At 1,330 gallons, the dealership has exceeded the federal aboveground capacity threshold. Management would then need to make sure the other SPCC applicability criteria are evaluated as well.

9.Needing an SPCC Plan Does Not Always Mean Hiring a PE

There is another threshold dealership managers should know: 10,000 gallons.

EPA provides streamlined requirements for certain "qualified facilities" with 10,000 gallons or less of aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity and a qualifying spill history. These facilities may be able to self-certify their SPCC Plans instead of obtaining Professional Engineer certification.

EPA divides qualified facilities into Tier I and Tier II. A Tier I facility must meet the qualified-facility criteria and have no individual aboveground oil container greater than 5,000 gallons. Tier I facilities can use EPA's streamlined SPCC Plan template. A Tier II qualified facility may also self-certify but follows the applicable requirements of the full rule rather than the Tier I template.

The spill-history criteria matter. Among other requirements, the facility must not have had a single qualifying discharge greater than 1,000 gallons or two qualifying discharges each greater than 42 gallons within any 12-month period during the relevant three-year lookback.

Self-certification is not the same as "no plan required." It changes who can certify the Plan and, for Tier I facilities, can simplify the format. The Plan still has to be prepared and implemented correctly.

10.Recalculate When the Facility Changes

A dealership that was below the threshold five years ago is not automatically below it today.

Bulk-fluid systems get added. Used oil tanks get replaced with larger ones. A dealership adds diesel storage or changes how fluids are purchased and stored. A collision center or another operation may be added to the property.

Any meaningful change in oil storage is a good reason to pull out the inventory and run the capacity calculation again.

And if the facility already has an SPCC Plan, changes to the facility may require the Plan to be amended rather than simply filed away and forgotten.

The Bigger Picture

The 1,320-gallon question is not difficult math. The hard part is making sure you are counting the right things.

Walk the property. Identify every qualifying oil container. Write down its maximum capacity. Include qualifying oil-filled equipment. Remove the items the rule specifically excludes. Then add the numbers.

If the total is greater than 1,320 gallons, do not stop there. Evaluate the rest of the SPCC applicability criteria, including whether a discharge could reasonably reach navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.

For many dealerships, that exercise takes less time than people expect. It also answers a question that is much better settled before an inspector, a spill or a new tank forces the issue.