Oil Pollution Prevention and Response; Non-Transportation-Related Onshore and Offshore Facilities

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or we) is today extending, by eighteen months from the dates promulgated in the July 2002 Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) amendments, the dates for a facility to amend its SPCC Plan and implement the amended Plan (or, in the case of facilities becoming operational after August 16, 2002, prepare and implement a Plan that complies with the newly amended requirements). We are finalizing this extension to, among other things, provide sufficient time for the regulated community to undertake the actions necessary to update (or prepare) their plans in accordance with the amendments. The extension will also avoid a flood of individual extension requests it has become apparent we will otherwise receive.