Q. Is our stormwater system recovery tank, which is an underground steel tank, regulated?
|
A. Both your oil water separator (OWS) and the tank in question, the stormwater system recovery tank, may be subject to federal Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) requirements if your facility has an aboveground aggregate storage capacity of greater than 1,320 gallons aboveground or buried oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 gallons.
If your facility meets the SPCC threshold requirements, SPCC requirements would apply to the oil/water separator (OWS) because it is used to remove surface oil, as OWSs used for oil recovery and/or recycling count toward a facility’s storage capacity as they are considered oil-filled manufacturing equipment under the regulations and are subject to the provisions of 40 CFR 112.7 and 112.8(b) and (d). OWSs used solely for wastewater treatment are exempt from the regulations and do not count toward facility storage capacity.
The stormwater system recovery tank may be regulated under the SPCC regulations if your facility meets the regulatory threshold and if the tank contains oil. Of course, the tank contains water, but if there is oil in any amount present, SPCC regulations apply. The rule does not define a percentage of oil in a mixture for the purposes of defining if the mixture is an oil for regulatory applicability purposes.