EPA Reform of SPCC Rule Benefits Small Business.

Revisions Streamline Requirements, Will Increase Overall Compliance

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency's recent actions reforming the Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule contains provisions that will benefit small business. The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration is encouraged that the EPA listened to small business and included those provisions in the reformed rule.

"Advocacy has worked for years with the EPA to get the SPCC rule right for small business," said Shawne McGibbon, acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy. "EPA's announcement of the current SPCC rule reform shows that they have listened to the concerns of small business and have acted to alleviate those concerns."

The SPCC program is designed to prevent spills of oil into waterways, and to contain spills after they occur. Facilities subject to the program must develop spill prevention plans designed to prevent and minimize such discharges.

EPA's amendments are designed to increase overall compliance by small firms while reducing the regulatory burden on facilities that handle small volumes of oil and have a history of no reportable discharge. For small facilities, EPA introduced a reporting template and other streamlined requirements. It also included a visual inspection option for small volume tanks.

EPA realized that its original rule put an unnecessary burden on firms that did not significantly contribute to the oil spill problem EPA was attempting to address. The revised rule takes up issues raised by Advocacy in a June 2004 comment letter and report, and contains many of the changes suggested by the Office of Advocacy in February 2006 comments to EPA.

The Office of Advocacy, the "small business watchdog" of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.

For more information, visit the Office of Advocacy web site at www.sba.gov/advo.

The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent voice for small business within the federal government. The presidentially appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy advances the views, concerns, and interests of small business before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policymakers. For more information, visit www.sba.gov/advo, or call [phone].

SBA Number: 08-34 ADVO