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SPCC Plan Requirements Under 40 CFR 112: Thresholds, Tiers, and What EPA Actually Charges
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SPCC Plan Requirements Under 40 CFR 112: Thresholds, Tiers, and What EPA Actually Charges

SPCC plan requirements under 40 CFR 112: storage thresholds, Tier I and Tier II self-certification, the two amendment clocks, and current EPA penalty figures.

by iSi Environmental

You May Not Need That Professional Engineer

If your facility stores 9,000 gallons of oil aboveground in a single tank, you have very likely been told your Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan has to be stamped by a Professional Engineer. It does not. 40 CFR 112.3(d) requires PE review and certification “except as provided in § 112.6,” and 40 CFR 112.6(b) lets a Tier II qualified facility self-certify with no limit at all on the size of its largest container. The ceiling is 10,000 gallons aggregate aboveground capacity plus a clean discharge history, and that is the whole test.

Collapsing Tier I and Tier II is the most common error in SPCC writing, and it is the error this page carried until this update. It is an expensive one: a PE-certified plan costs money a qualified facility does not have to spend.

An SPCC Plan sets out how a facility prevents oil discharges and what it does when one happens: facility diagram, secondary containment, integrity testing, inspection procedures, training, and discharge notification. 40 CFR 112.3 says you “prepare in writing and implement” it. Nothing gets filed. Part 112 is stable, dating to the 2008 and 2011 amendment rounds, and nothing in EPA’s 2026 deregulatory program touched it. What trips facilities up is the arithmetic.

Do I need a Professional Engineer to certify my SPCC plan?

Not if you are a qualified facility. 40 CFR 112.3(d) requires PE certification “except as provided in § 112.6,” and 112.6 lets Tier I and Tier II facilities self-certify. The dividing line is aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity of 10,000 gallons or less plus the clean discharge history at 112.3(g)(2).

Self-certification is not a lighter standard. The plan still meets the substantive requirements of 40 CFR 112.7 and the applicable Subpart B or C provisions. It removes the engineer’s stamp and fee, not the containment, the integrity testing or the training.

There are limits even at a qualified facility. Under 40 CFR 112.6(b)(3) and (4), you may not self-certify environmental-equivalence alternatives, impracticability determinations, or certain produced-water measures. Those need written PE certification regardless of tier. The pattern: take the rule as written and self-certify; if you need a deviation, buy engineering for the deviation only.

What is the difference between a Tier I and a Tier II qualified facility?

Both tiers require aggregate aboveground capacity of 10,000 gallons or less and the same clean discharge history. 40 CFR 112.3(g)(1) adds one condition for Tier I: no individual aboveground container larger than 5,000 gallons. In exchange, a Tier I facility may use the Appendix G template.

One facility, two tank configurations. Nine thousand gallons in two 4,500-gallon tanks is Tier I: fill out the Appendix G template, sign it, done. The same 9,000 gallons in one tank exceeds the individual-container ceiling, so it is not Tier I. It is still Tier II under 112.6(b), still self-certifies, still needs no PE. It only loses the template, and has to be written to the full 112.7 structure instead.

Outgrowing a tier starts a clock rather than creating an instant violation. A Tier I facility that passes the 5,000-gallon container ceiling or 10,000 gallons aggregate has six months to move to Tier II if it still qualifies, or to a PE-certified plan, under 112.6(a)(2); a Tier II facility past 10,000 gallons aggregate has six months to move to a PE-certified plan under 112.6(b)(2)(ii).

What discharge history disqualifies me from self-certifying?

Under 40 CFR 112.3(g)(2), any single discharge of oil exceeding 1,000 U.S. gallons, or any two discharges each exceeding 42 U.S. gallons, within any twelve-month period in the three years before the self-certification date. Discharges caused by natural disaster, act of war or terrorism are excluded from that count.

The 42-gallon figure is small, roughly a drum, so two modest releases in one year can cost a facility its qualified status. And the clock runs backward from the date you certify, not from the date of the plan, so a facility recovering from a bad year becomes eligible again by waiting.

What a PE Certification Actually Attests, and What It Does Not Do

When a PE does certify, 40 CFR 112.3(d)(1) requires six attestations, at paragraphs (i) through (vi): familiarity with Part 112; that the engineer or an agent has visited and examined the facility; that the plan was prepared in accordance with good engineering practice, including applicable industry standards; that required inspection and testing procedures have been established; and that the plan is adequate for the facility.

The visit matters. A plan certified by an engineer who never went to the site, and sent nobody, does not meet 112.3(d)(1)(ii). That is a real failure mode in template-driven plan work.

The part facilities misread is 112.3(d)(2): certification does not relieve the owner or operator of the duty to prepare and fully implement the plan. The stamp is not the deliverable. Implementation is.

What is the gallon threshold that triggers an SPCC plan?

A facility is exempt only if its aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity is 1,320 U.S. gallons or less and its completely buried capacity is 42,000 gallons or less, per 40 CFR 112.1(d)(2). Only containers of 55 gallons or greater count toward the aboveground total. Containers under 55 gallons are excluded entirely under 112.1(d)(5).

That threshold catches more facilities than people expect. Twenty-four 55-gallon drums of hydraulic oil is exactly 1,320 gallons, and the exemption runs only to “1,320 U.S. gallons or less,” so the twenty-fifth drum puts you in scope. A 1,000-gallon diesel day tank plus a few hundred gallons of lube oil gets you there too. “Oil” is broad: diesel, gasoline, lube and hydraulic oil, and also animal fats and vegetable oils, which is why food processors and rendering operations are in scope as surely as fuel terminals.

Applicability turns on three things at once under 112.1(b): the facility is non-transportation-related and stores, processes, transfers, distributes, uses or consumes oil; it crosses a capacity threshold; and it could, because of its location, reasonably be expected to discharge oil in harmful quantities to navigable waters or adjoining shorelines. The third is the one facilities misjudge.

Read the exclusions at 112.1(d) against your own inventory, because facilities disqualify themselves wrongly in both directions: motive power containers at (d)(7), though transferring fuel into one at a regulated facility is not excluded; hot-mix asphalt at (d)(8); pesticide application equipment at (d)(10); and intra-facility gathering lines regulated under 49 CFR Part 192 or 195 at (d)(11), which must still be marked “exempt” on the facility diagram. Note also 112.1(f): the Regional Administrator may require a plan from a facility otherwise excluded. An exclusion is not a guarantee.

Does the 1,320-gallon threshold count what I store or what I could store?

Capacity, not contents. 40 CFR 112.1(d)(2)(ii) measures aggregate aboveground storage capacity, so a half-empty tank counts at its full volume. The count includes standby, seasonal and temporary containers and any container not permanently closed under 112.1(b)(3), plus bunkered, partially buried and vaulted containers under 112.1(b)(4).

So the inventory behind an applicability determination is a list of vessels and rated volumes, not what the tank farm held the day you walked it. Count drums, totes, day tanks, used-oil tanks, oil-filled transformers and hydraulic reservoirs. A 2,000-gallon tank kept empty eleven months a year still carries 2,000 gallons of capacity. Completely buried tanks meeting 40 CFR Part 280 or an approved state program drop out under 112.1(d)(4).

Can I avoid SPCC because my tanks already sit inside secondary containment?

No. The location exclusion at 40 CFR 112.1(d)(1)(i) applies only where, based solely on geography and location, no discharge to navigable waters could reasonably be expected, and it requires that manmade features such as dikes, equipment and other structures be disregarded. Your own containment cannot be counted in that determination.

The rule’s logic is that containment is a control and controls fail, so applicability is judged on where oil would go if the controls were not there. The site-walk question: ignoring every berm, dike and curb on this property, could oil reach a ditch, a storm drain, a creek or a tributary? Given how far navigable waters reach through tributaries and storm-sewer pathways, very few industrial sites in our region clear that test.

Facilities That Commonly Need SPCC Plans

Industrial and manufacturing operations: metal fabrication shops, food processing plants (especially those using animal fats or vegetable oils), chemical production facilities, and equipment manufacturers. Transportation and fueling operations: trucking terminals, airports, and fueling stations. Construction and aggregate operations: concrete batch plants, asphalt plants, and mining sites. Agricultural operations: farms storing diesel or crop oils, grain elevators, feed mills, and fertilizer distributors. Utilities and public works: power plants, water and wastewater treatment facilities, and municipal maintenance yards. Commercial facilities: warehouses with oil-powered equipment, fleet maintenance centers, and hospitals or universities with emergency generators.

If you operate any of these and cross the capacity thresholds, you very likely need a plan. Starting from the beginning? Our earlier overview of SPCC plans and whether your company needs one walks the applicability question at a slower pace.

When does a new facility need its SPCC plan in place?

Before beginning operations, for facilities other than oil production facilities, under 40 CFR 112.3(a)(1). A new oil production facility gets six months after beginning operations under 112.3(b). There is no grace period for an ordinary new industrial facility. The plan precedes startup.

This is the deadline capital projects miss, because the plan gets treated as post-commissioning paperwork and the rule treats it as a prerequisite to operating. If a new plant will hold more than 1,320 gallons of aggregate aboveground capacity on day one, the applicability determination belongs in design and the signed plan belongs on site before the first product moves.

What changes require me to amend my SPCC plan, and how fast?

A change in facility design, construction, operation or maintenance that materially affects the facility’s potential for a discharge, per 40 CFR 112.5(a). Two clocks run. The amendment must be prepared within six months of the change, then implemented as soon as possible and no later than six months following preparation. A PE must certify technical amendments under 112.5(c).

The materiality qualifier does real work, and plenty of SPCC writing drops it. Not every site change is a trigger. The rule’s examples are physical and procedural: commissioning or decommissioning containers, moving or replacing containers or piping, constructing or demolishing containment structures, changing product or service, and revising standard operating or maintenance procedures. Swapping a name on a call list is not one of them.

The second clock is the one nobody tracks. A facility that prepares an amendment inside six months, then takes a year to build the containment it describes, has missed 112.5(a) just as surely as one that never wrote the amendment.

What does the SPCC five-year review actually require?

Review and evaluate the plan at least once every five years from the date the facility became subject to Part 112, per 40 CFR 112.5(b), and sign a statement saying whether the plan will be amended, placed at the beginning or end of the plan, in a log or in an appendix. If field-proven technology would significantly reduce discharge likelihood, amend within six months.

The signed statement is the artifact, and it is the one that goes missing. Facilities do the review, conclude nothing needs to change, and never document the conclusion. EPA’s inspection findings name missing or insufficient five-year-review documentation as a leading deficiency, so an inspector looks for it early. It costs one page.

The clock runs from the date the facility became subject to Part 112, or, for facilities operating on or before August 16, 2002, from the date of the last required review. One clarification, because the phrase collides: this is the SPCC plan review under 112.5(b), a different obligation from a CERCLA remedy five-year review.

Do I have to submit my SPCC plan to EPA?

No. 40 CFR 112.3 requires you to prepare and implement the plan, not file it. Under 112.3(e) a complete copy is kept at the facility if it is normally attended at least four hours per day, otherwise at the nearest field office, and must be available to the Regional Administrator for on-site review during normal working hours.

Unlike most environmental deliverables, the plan stays on site, and nobody reads it until somebody asks, usually an inspection or the aftermath of a discharge. That is why plan quality drifts: no annual submittal forces a read. A complete copy means the appendices, the diagram and the inspection records, not the narrative alone.

What is the penalty for an SPCC violation?

Clean Water Act section 311 administrative penalties run to $23,647 per violation with a $59,114 cap under Class I, and $23,647 per day with a $295,564 cap under Class II, per 40 CFR 19.4 Table 1 for penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025. Judicial civil penalties under CWA 309(d) reach $68,445.

Those figures map to the statutory structure: Class I at 33 U.S.C. 1321(b)(6)(B)(i), Class II at 33 U.S.C. 1321(b)(6)(B)(ii), judicial at 33 U.S.C. 1319(d). Each carries the January 8, 2025 adjustment date. The 40 CFR 19.4 table does not itself label which figure in a pair is per violation, per day or a cap, so these characterizations follow the statute and we will not stretch them further.

One point of currency, because stale penalty numbers are endemic here: no 2026 penalty inflation adjustment was issued. OMB Memorandum M-26-11, dated April 17, 2026, cancelled it, and the January 8, 2025 amounts remain in effect.

What does EPA actually assess for a routine SPCC violation?

Far less than the statutory maximum. EPA’s 2023 SPCC Expedited Settlement Agreement, approved May 4, 2023, sets base penalties of $1,750 for having no plan, $850 for inadequate secondary containment and $500 for no PE certification, multiplied by a capacity factor from 0.75 to 2.0, and capped at $15,000. Above that cap the region issues an administrative penalty order instead.

The rest of the schedule shows what EPA prices each finding at: $700 where containment is circumvented by open bypass valves, $525 where containment will not hold the largest single compartment of a tank car or truck, $500 for no management approval, $225 where no inspection records are available, and $75 to $175 for plan-content and recordkeeping items. The capacity multiplier runs 0.75 at 1,320 to 10,000 gallons, 1.0 at 10,001 to 41,999, 1.25 at 42,000 to 999,999, 1.75 at 1,000,000 to 9,999,999, and 2.0 above that.

Eligibility is narrow. Every violation has to appear on EPA’s checklist, the calculated penalty has to land at or under $15,000, and the respondent must return the signed agreement within 30 days certifying return to compliance. A repeat violator may still be offered one, but the penalty can rise by up to 75 percent, and a facility may receive no more than two expedited agreements ever.

The other end of the band is real. In Docket CWA-09-2026-0065, signed March 31, 2026, EPA assessed a $142,010 civil penalty against IES Downstream, LLC for its Honolulu Marine Terminal, roughly 29 aboveground tanks totalling about 20,587,628 gallons. None of the three violations is a missing document: insufficiently impervious secondary containment under 112.7(c) and 112.8(c), from a compromised liner in the South Tank Farm; failure to promptly correct visible discharges under 112.8(c)(1), from a leak at a seam in Tank T-5; and failure to mark not-in-service piping as to its origin under 112.8(d)(2). That last is a maintenance detail that costs almost nothing to fix, and it was charged anyway.

So: a band driven by capacity, findings and history. Four figures for a small facility with a few checklist items, six figures for a large terminal with physical containment failures.

What do EPA inspectors find most often at SPCC facilities?

In EPA’s Quality and Consistency Review of SPCC and FRP Plans, covering 120 regulated facilities across FY2018 and FY2019, 8 percent, or 10 facilities, had no SPCC plan at all at the time of inspection, and the 110 that had one carried an average of four plan deficiencies each. The five commonest categories were plan content, general secondary containment, integrity testing, sized secondary containment and drainage.

Read that with EPA’s own caveat attached. EPA describes the review as a qualitative snapshot of a small sample drawn only from facilities where deficiencies were identified, and states that deficiency frequency “is not indicative of overall SPCC and FRP compliance.” The 8 percent figure is not a national non-compliance rate and should not be used as one.

What is useful is the shape of the findings: missing or insufficient five-year-review documentation, amendments not made when required, key information omitted from the facility diagram, containment for piping not addressed, integrity testing of bulk containers not addressed, no demonstration that secondary containment met the required size or design standard, and no stormwater procedures for diked areas. EPA reports no noticeable difference in deficiency types by industry or by storage capacity, which undercuts the assumption that small facilities get a softer standard.

We walked the full list in a separate post on the most common SPCC plan deficiencies EPA names. If you are auditing your own plan, start there.

Does my state have SPCC requirements on top of the federal rule?

The SPCC program is not delegated to states, so EPA enforces Part 112 directly. KDHE states plainly that the program has not been transferred to Kansas and that questions go to EPA Region 7. What states run alongside it is a separate storage tank program with its own registration, permits, fees and containment standards.

Complying with one does not satisfy the other, and that is the trap. A Kansas facility can be fully registered and permitted by the state and still have no compliant federal plan, because nobody at the state level is looking at the federal plan.

In Kansas the Kansas Storage Tank Act governs, with exemptions at K.S.A. 65-34,103, registration at 65-34,104 and implementing authority at 65-34,105 and 65-34,106, through K.A.R. 28-44-28 and 28-44-29. An aboveground storage tank is one with more than 90 percent of its volume aboveground, including piping. Permits are required for non-exempt tanks holding liquid petroleum fuels, flammable or combustible liquids, CERCLA Table 302.4 hazardous substances, or used oil. The permit runs $10 per tank annually, invoiced with fees due by December 31, for a permit year running August 1 to July 31, with a $10 late notice fee per facility. Under K.A.R. 28-44-29(b) product may not be placed in a tank unless a valid permit is openly displayed at the facility, and violations can carry fines up to $10,000 per violation. Kansas requires secondary containment of 110 percent of the largest tank volume.

Separately, the Kansas State Fire Marshal must approve new tanks holding flammable or combustible liquids in advance, on its own forms, and sets the containment requirements for those tanks. KDHE describes that review as generally two to three weeks. If you are installing a flammable-liquid tank in Kansas, it is on the critical path, not after it.

In Oklahoma, aboveground storage tanks are regulated by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission under OAC Title 165, Chapter 26, with a current rule edition effective October 1, 2023. Check that chapter against your own tank inventory rather than assuming the Kansas numbers carry over; they are different programs.

The federal plan is the constant. Wherever the facility sits, Part 112 is enforced by EPA and the state tank program layers on top of it.

How iSi Helps

Our environmental compliance team handles SPCC Plans for manufacturing and industrial facilities across 40 states. We run the applicability determination against all three legs of 112.1, settle the tier question before anyone commissions plan work, write or update the plan, coordinate PE certification when the facility actually needs one, and deliver the required training. For COOP retainer clients, SPCC management sits inside the ongoing compliance program, including five-year reviews, the signed review statements, and change-triggered amendments with both six-month clocks tracked.

Ask the tier question before anything else gets commissioned, because the answer decides whether a PE is in scope at all. If you are not sure which side of 10,000 gallons aggregate you fall on, or whether your last five-year review was ever signed, contact us for a straightforward assessment. We respond the same day, usually within 30 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the gallon threshold that triggers an SPCC plan?

More than 1,320 U.S. gallons of aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity, counting only containers of 55 gallons or more, or more than 42,000 gallons completely buried (40 CFR 112.1(d)(2)). It is capacity, not contents, so a half-empty tank counts at full volume.

Do I need a Professional Engineer to certify my SPCC plan?

Not if the facility qualifies under 40 CFR 112.6: at 10,000 gallons aggregate or less with a clean discharge history, Tier I and Tier II facilities self-certify. Tier II has no limit on individual container size, so even a single 9,000-gallon tank can self-certify.

What does EPA actually charge for SPCC violations?

Routine findings resolve under the 2023 expedited settlement schedule, capped at $15,000, with base penalties like $1,750 for no plan. Physical containment failures at large facilities run far higher: EPA assessed $142,010 against a Honolulu terminal in 2026.

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