Tank Talk - Bulk Fuel Podcast
Tank Talk - Bulk Fuel Podcast is a podcast that delves into various aspects of environmental management and regulations, mainly focusing on bulk fuel storage, fish processing, and utility facilities across the Pacific Northwest. Hosted by industry expert Shannon Oelkers, Tank Talk features discussions with industry leaders to answer questions commonly asked by terminal managers. Episodes cover various topics involving State and Federal regulations, tank inspections and permits, and industry vendors. Tune in to navigate the complexities of rules and operations, offering insights and information to listeners involved or interested in environmental compliance and best practices within specialized industries.
Tank Talk - Bulk Fuel Podcast
Plan Amendments aren’t Optional: What Regulators Expect to See
If there’s one thing every bulk fuel facility has in common, it’s this: nothing stays the same for long - and your plans and permits shouldn’t either. In this episode, Shannon and Haley dig into one of the most misunderstood (and most frequently violated) compliance requirements out there: plan amendments.
Why are amendment rules so confusing? Because every regulation - SPCC, FRP, MSGP, ODPCP - plays by different rules, deadlines, timelines, and definitions. And yet inspectors expect facilities to keep everything updated accurately, on time, and without missing a beat.
Shannon breaks down:
- Why plan amendments are one of the most common compliance findings
- What actually qualifies as an amendment
- The difference between technical vs. non-technical and major vs. minor
- What triggers an update for SPCCs, FRPs, MSGP SWPPPs, and ODPCPs
- How deadlines really work (and why they often cause headaches)
If you’ve ever wondered whether a change at your facility requires an update - or if you’ve discovered you are months behind - this episode will help you make sense of it all. And if it still feels like “clear as mud,” don’t worry: Integrity maintains hundreds of plans a year, and we’re here to help.
intro/outro created with GarageBand
Welcome to Tank Talk with Integrity Environmental. Join us as we sit down with founder, principal consultant, and bulk fuel storage expert Shannon Olbers to explore regulations, safety, and essential tips for navigating the bulk fuel storage industry. Join us as we explore the unique joys of work and life in Alaska with industry experts, including our team, vendors we work with, and the companies we support. So, Shannon, we sure do a lot of plan amendments here at Integrity.
SPEAKER_01:That we do, Haley. That we do. Facilities change all the time, and plans have to be updated. It's like the old saying: nothing is certain in life except death, taxes, and plan amendments.
SPEAKER_02:Well, one of our most frequently asked questions is when does an amendment need to be made? I bet it is.
SPEAKER_01:Every planner permit has different roles and types of amendments. It's super confusing. It's also the most common violation type across all regulatory agencies. Hands down.
SPEAKER_02:Well, if it's confusing like it is for me, and potentially a compliance violation, I think we should clear things up for our listeners.
SPEAKER_01:I'm game. I'm game. I will do my best, but as a heads up, this is a complicated subject. I'll guarantee you everyone listening to this is gonna walk away feeling really confident. They now know when an amendment needs to happen. And then that first amendment that crosses their desk will be different than anything we talked about and nothing like what we talked about. So fair warning.
SPEAKER_02:Great. So let's start with why it's confusing. What makes plan amendment requirements so hard to understand?
SPEAKER_01:It's a lack of consistency. Every permit or plan seems to have a different timeline. They have different deadlines, they have different criteria about when amendments should occur. And then there's different kinds of amendments, like major or minor, technical or non-technical. Some are driven by insurance or financial requirements, some are driven by personnel or infrastructure changes. It's a lot.
SPEAKER_02:It sounds like it. So how do integrity consultants keep track of all of this?
SPEAKER_01:Pure unadulterated experience from the School of Hard Knocks. Also, we maintain hundreds of plans each year. So we have the benefit of repetition. Most people at a facility are responsible for plan and permit maintenance rarely, maybe once or twice a year at most, would they be doing an amendment? At integrity, we do dozens a week. So that really does help a lot. Just volume.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. So we know it's confusing, complex, and something that crops up infrequently for our clients. How do you suggest we talk about amendment requirements to clear this up for our listeners?
SPEAKER_01:Let's start with some general truths about amendments, and then we can talk about the specifics of some of our more common permit and plan types. I don't want to cover everything. We would be here all day. It gets increasingly complex, but we can do some of the most common ones.
SPEAKER_02:Great. How would you define an amendment?
SPEAKER_01:And its most basic an amendment is just the documentation of any change to the information in an existing planner permit. So examples of this could be personnel changes, infrastructure changes, documenting significant events like a spill, and operational changes. I do want people to keep in mind though that plans and permits are fundamentally both a resource for data about the facility during things like emergency response, but they're also a legal agreement to operate with regulatory agencies. So for either case, they have to accurately describe the personal infrastructure, site history, and operations for the facility at all times.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. So can you walk me through what the general process is for amending a plan?
SPEAKER_01:Whew, if you're listening along, uh grab the pencil. I did create a list of the basic steps, but it's not a short list. So first, you need to identify that an amendment is needed. An action has to occur and you have to recognize that the plan needs to be changed. Once you've decided an amendment is necessary, there's typically some kind of source documents or data that you need to complete the amendment. You need the job book from the new tank that is constructed, or you need the information from the liner manufacturer about what kind of liner you've just installed for your secondary containment, or even a manufacturer specification sheet for the gauge you just installed. So some kind of data gathering source documents to support this amendment. You then want to go in and modify your plan text. If you keep your permits in-house, that may be as simple as opening a Word doc and tracking changes and making the changes. If you work with consultants or you work with third parties, you may submit the changes to them and have them do that. Once that plan is amended or the text is amended, somebody needs to review it. Sometimes it's an internal review by someone else in your company if it's a minor amendment. Sometimes it's a professional engineer or a third-party consultant has to do that amendment, but that's not for all permits. So keep in mind, some changes you can just make in-house doesn't need to be reviewed by anybody. Some are critical and they have to be reviewed or they're not compliant. And we'll go over that when we get to the specific permit requirements. But I do want to let people know that that review of amendment gets a little tricky. So that was our fourth step in the process. Fifth is you actually submit that amendment to a regulatory agency for some of the permits, but not all. Listeners of our podcast may remember that the SPCC is a sleeper permit. You don't actually submit it, but you do have to update it and keep it updated at all times. Once you've submitted it to the regulatory agency, if that's a thing and it comes back, or if you've updated it and you don't have to submit it, then you need to make a final updated digital file, sort of save the information and edits. We recommend giving it a different name, like revision two, or having a revision log at the beginning of the document. And then the last piece of this is updating the hard copies, printing and replacing the physical copy. And a lot of you have an SPCC or facility response plan in your terminal manager's office that needs to have pages removed and replaced. That's the general process. It's not a short list, like I said.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. So if there's an amendment needed for one plan, do all of the plans need to be updated then?
SPEAKER_01:You know, that is a good question. And the answer is both yes and no. It depends on what kind of change it is. Something like a change to key personnel, like let's say your qualified individual changes, or the company is sold and the name of the company changes, that might need to be updated in all of your plans. But maybe the plan is removing a stormwater outfall from your MSGP SWIP, that might only affect one plan, your SWIP. So again, depends, yes and no. Great answers, I know, for all of our listeners.
SPEAKER_02:So are all amendments the same?
SPEAKER_01:No, like I briefly mentioned before, generally amendments are ranked within regulations as minor or major or technical and non-technical. And Haley, the overall theme is that changes that are low risk or low impact to spill response are considered minor or non-technical. And changes that are higher risk to the facility, to the community are major or technical.
SPEAKER_02:That makes sense. So what's the difference specifically between major and minor?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. So some regulations, particularly state regulations, will categorize amendment types using this terminology. And it generally relates to the impact it has on the ability of the owner to respond to the spill or to the disaster event, or the impact of the change to the community. Here in Alaska, major amendments will typically include review by state regulators, they'll have a public comment period, and they can take up to six months to complete. An example of a major amendment, just to give you context, it might be the construction of a new larger tank that increases your spill response requirements for that facility. The state would want to review local and regional resources to ensure the new larger storage volume can be contained and controlled if there was a spill. And they'll also want the public's input on this change in their community. Makes sense. Minor amendments, on the other hand, they don't typically have a public review component and they're completed within 30 days. A good example of this might be updating the facility description to indicate a gravel drive area is now paved. It's not really impacting spill, it's not really impacting the community. It's just an update in the description of the facility that can kind of roll through with that 30 days.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. So then what's the difference between technical and non-technical?
SPEAKER_01:This terminology is pretty specific to the SPCC in 40 CFR 112. A review is considered technical if it requires a review by a professional engineer. There's two sections of 40 CFR 112, sections three and sections five that give excruciatingly detailed instructions on what requires a professional engineer review. However, as we know, Haley, when it's written by the EPA, there's a wide range of interpretation and enforcement. Generally, our firm advocates for PE review to occur when anything physically changes at the facility. But if you change where you store your drums, for example, that is not necessarily a physical infrastructure change, but it could trigger a PE review. So it's not clear cut. My best recommendation is you have to do an annual review of your SPCC anyways. It's required. When you do that review, if you have changes that you've identified in the plan, check with your SPCC writer and they will let you know if any of those changes will trigger a technical amendment. It's a really hard call to make on your own.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. So what about deadlines? Do amendments need to be done within a certain amount of time?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, everyone listening right now, just go buy a bottle of Tylenol and slap a label on it called deadlines. Haley, there is no single answer to this. Great. It is so hard. Each regulation has specific deadlines written in for all different kinds of amendments and situations. So some require amendments to be made immediately, others require amendments to be made within 10 days, 60 days, six months, all over the place.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. So how do you know when the deadline is?
SPEAKER_01:Read the regulation and your permit, which everyone has lots of time to do that, right? I mean, this is the short and the long answer is you got to read each individual permit and each individual regulation and make sure you're getting it right. I would like to encourage our listeners to pay attention to combined plans, which may have two or more different regulation-based deadlines. A good hint that you've got a combined plan is the presence of a cross-reference table in it. If you have a combined plan, you should submit amendments to all agencies within the shortest time frame. And I would not recommend if you've got two different deadlines, like one for 30 days and one for 60, I wouldn't submit it to the Coast Guard on 30 and the EPA on 60. I would just do it all at once. It really ups the complexity tracking two different dates. Just do the shortest one, not the longest.
SPEAKER_02:So, what if a project is just replacing something exactly? Like replacing an old containment liner with a new one or replacing a faulty tank gauge with the exact same model.
SPEAKER_01:Ooh, it's so tempting to think that no amendment is needed because it seems like on the surface nothing's changed, right? Bad news, these are definitely amendments. Often plans are the only documentation of a capital improvement project because they describe the facility systems. A good example of this is if you've got a liner described as installed in 1996, that's going to need to be updated with the current install date to reflect that new liner material. Liners and epoxies are very different today than they were 30 years ago, and your plan needs to describe what is installed right now at the facility. Same goes for gauges. If you replace a gauge and it's 10 years newer than all the other gauges, it's pretty smart and required to document that. Amendments are typically tied to equipment that impacts your ability to respond to spills. So gauges, containment liners, spill response equipment, personnel that would need to act. So we're tracking all sorts of things, but I did want to clarify that if you're changing a filter, that's not necessarily something that would trigger an amendment. Just to clarify.
SPEAKER_02:Interesting. Shannon, this was so surprising to me learning about this. Amendments are required after spills.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, funny enough, it's often a surprise to some of our industry partners as well. So spills do need to be documented, but not for all plans and not for all spill types, which makes it further complicated. The SPCC and the multi-sector SWIPS, for example, both require documentation of spills, but they have to meet certain volume or location requirements. But then you have plans like our operations manual that would not need updating if you had a spill. So if you do have a spill, again, you're going to need to read each permit specifically to find out if there's a requirement to document it or work with a consulting group or plan writing group to help you figure out which ones need the update.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. This is a lot to process. And you are right. This is so confusing with all of the different requirements. Shannon, do you think you could review the amendment requirements for our most common permits?
SPEAKER_01:I will, but I have to let our listeners know that there's a huge caveat to this list. Each permit has super specific definitions that make generalized lists inaccurate, pretty much from the get-go. You may think you know what the definition of a minor or non-technical amendment is, but if it does not match up with what the state or federal definitions are, you could be wrong. So I just want to let people know you've been warned. Definitely read your permit and the regulation. I'll probably say that eight more times before we get to the end of this podcast. But yeah, I can go through some of the general ones. And I think this will be helpful as far as people understanding like when they need to act, when they're suspicious that they do have an amendment. So we can approach it that way.
SPEAKER_02:Great.
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SPEAKER_02:Let's do rapid fire style. Let's do SPCC first.
SPEAKER_01:Whoo, SPCC 40 CFR 1125 is where you will find the amendment requirements. An amendment made under this section must be prepared within six months of the change. Changes can be implemented as soon as possible, but the update to the plan must happen no later than six months following the preparation of that. And then 112.5B, the SPCC must be reviewed every five years. And if any changes are required based on that review, those changes must be completed within six months of that review. And then lastly, 112.5C for applicable facilities, and again, very detailed, widely varied interpretation. Have a professional engineer certify any technical amendments to your plan.
SPEAKER_02:Great. Moving down the list, FRP's next, often combined with the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Most facility response plans serve two masters, the EPA and the Coast Guard. There are facility response plans that do not receive fuel over water that do not have a Coast Guard component. Again, check for cross-references. That'll let you know if you've got a combined plan. 40 CFR 1120, which is the facility response plan regulations for the EPA, requires changes that affect a facility's response to worst-case discharges be revised and submitted within 60 days of the change occurring. But 33 CFR 154, 1065, requires plan revisions within 30 days, whenever there is any change that significantly affects the information in or implementation of the plan. So in this case, very good example of where you would want to do changes within 30 days, even though you might have 60 to do it under one reg, you have 30 with the other. Just get it done and within 30 days. Specific to the facility response plan though, Haley, small amendments such as changes to personnel and telephone numbers listed in the plan for like notifications, those typically don't require approval or submitted, but they should be submitted as the revisions occur. So like if you do an annual review and you're updating stuff, get it in. Perfect. Let's move down the list. MSGP SWIP. Okay. We work in a couple different states now. So I'll do Alaska and Washington if that's okay. Sounds great. Okay. So for the Alaska MSGP part 5.6.5 requires a SWIP to be amended within 30 calendar days whenever there's a change in design, construction, operation, or maintenance, which has a significant effect on the potential for the discharge of pollutants to the waters of the US and the waters of the state of Alaska. So any change within 30 days. There's a couple other parts to the MSGP, 2.3 and 2.7. You may need to update your notice of intent submission and EDMS, and those are also required within 30 calendar days after that change. So it's a little bit different. This one's for changes to how you're operating to that notice of intent. It's not necessarily the SWIP permit itself. And then lastly, under the new 2025 MSGP permit, all corrective actions need to be included in the SWIP and they have to be documented within 24 hours of the discovery of the conditions requiring corrective action. Previously, you had a long time to get your quarterly corrective actions in there. Quarterly, I think. It's the state's now requiring 24 hours. Wow. Yeah. It's a little different. If you have an MSGP SWIP, now's the time to read the new permit. There are changes. Washington has a different approach than the state of Alaska. Their MSGP, which is called an ISGP, in section 2.b, a permittee anticipating a significant process change or otherwise requesting a modification of permit coverage shall submit a complete modification of coverage form at least 60 days before implementing a process change. So you got to do it before. You can't have it happen and then report afterwards. And so that is a significant difference between Washington and Alaska. And there's another section of that ISGP G6, same thing. You have to submit a new application or a supplement to the previous application when there's a big change or industrial activity to the quantity or type of discharge that's anticipated and not specifically authorized by the permit. Again, 60 days in advance.
SPEAKER_02:Great. So next up, state of Alaska ODPCP.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. As a reminder to our listeners, especially if you're a new listener, the state of Alaska ODPCP applies to tank farms located in the state of Alaska, and they have to have over 420,000 gallons of storage. So this does not apply to every tank farm in Alaska, just the big boys. All right. So 18 AAC 75 is the regulation, and part 220 has a financial requirement. And so I want to review this one because it does get missed quite a bit. The owner or operator of a facility must file an amendment application with the department for any changes in operation that would change the dollar amount of financial responsibility. At least 30 days before the changes occur. And then if you're an owner or operator of a non-tank vessel, that same change application has to be submitted at least 15 days before placing the changed operations into service within state waters. So before the non-tank vessel is actually operating in Alaska waters. That one is financial. There's a couple other ones that are just related to operations. 18 AC75415. It's a three-parter for major amendments to C plans. So these are the ones that are considered significant and impact the response capability of a facility. Applications must be submitted and approved before a change to a plan may take effect. Major amendments include changes such as a response planning standard, volume change, changes to response scenarios, or changes to response capabilities. This is the one I said earlier in the podcast, can take up to six months to get through this date. It's a big deal. 415B, on the other hand, has routine plan updates that must be submitted no later than 10 working days after the date of the proposed change occurs. This includes things like routine updates to personnel information, removing vessels from a plan that are not included as a response asset. And in general, pretty much any change that is not major should be submitted within 10 working days after that change occurs. So a little funky there, that gets missed quite a bit. You got a new terminal manager, you got a new QI that's got to go in within 10 working days. And then the last part of that 415 regulation C if you are adding a vessel to operate under an approved oil barge or tank vessel ODPCP, that has to be submitted at least five working days before the vessel enters state waters. But I want to do a PSA for our friends at the state of Alaska. Five days is not a lot of time to process anything. So if you can do it more than five days, they will appreciate it greatly. But the regulation says it has to be at least five days prior. So that's the big coverage for the ODPCP.
SPEAKER_02:Sounds like ODPCP has a lot of amendment time frames. And it also has one other unique feature: the requirement for a plan holder to notify ADEC in writing if specific equipment isn't ready to respond to spills.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah. The notification of non-readiness regulation. I don't know why everyone doesn't have this top of mind at all times. Haley, it's not an amendment per se, but it is a requirement that I think is worth mentioning here because a lot of times when people find problems with spill response equipment, the notification of non-readiness goes along with the amendment. So this is in section 475 of 18AAC 75. And it is called notification of non-readiness. And it says like all spill response equipment and other equipment identified in the approved ODP CP, it says they have to be maintained in operational condition. And if that equipment is found to not be operating properly, it must be repaired or replaced immediately. So imagine you have a harbor skiff for spill response to help you pull boom and you go to start it up for your monthly check and the engine's dead and you need to buy parts for it, and it's gonna take 45 days to get all the things you need to repair this engine. If that happens, this regulation in part B says that you have to notify within 24 hours the state of Alaska to provide a schedule for prompt return to operational status. And so this gets missed quite a bit. They go out and the trailer tires are flat and they got to order new tires and get them sent in, they can't fix it immediately. You have to do a 24-hour notification to the state in writing if it's part of the spill response equipment listed in your plan. And then if you are planning to remove or inactivate a major response item, like let's say you have a VAC truck, for example, written into your ODP CP and you fire it up, it's dead, you're like, you know what, I no longer want this VAC truck, I can't bring it back to life. If you're gonna remove it, you have to notify the state of that request at least 10 days before you want to remove it from service. And then they're gonna review your spill response plan and determine if you can meet the requirements of your spill response without the VAC truck. And oftentimes this triggers a major amendment. You gotta go back to the drawing board and rewrite your spill plan. So those are the three parts of the notification of non-readiness that apply to equipment being in or out of service. There's also a very specific regulation D that says a plan holder shall notify the department in writing within 24 hours if a significant change occurs in or is made to one of these three systems. And the reason these three were picked specifically is because of the risk to spill prevention. So the first one, A, is a leak detection system for flow lines at production facilities. Makes sense, right? If you've got leak detection on your flow lines at a production facility, that needs to be in operation at all times. And similarly, a leak detection system for crude oil transmission pipelines, right? Gotta have your leak detection going. The last item though, C is secondary containment systems for above ground storage tanks. And that's where if you have a winter storm come through and you walk out to your containment liner and there's a six-foot rip where the wind caught it, you have 24 hours to let the state know if you're following the regulations correctly. So I just wanted to make sure to go through this notification of non-readiness, because you're right, Haley. It's something that gets missed quite a bit. And it's not really an amendment, but it's amendment adjacent. It's something you have to do as you were preparing amendment, usually, because none of these things can be fixed easily or quickly. This is Shannon Olker. This has to happen as the owner of Integrity Environmental. I wanted to take a minute here at the audio podcast to make sure that you knew the following. This podcast is for informational purposes only, which should not be considered legal or regulatory advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional regulatory or legal advice. I'm happy that he's expressed in this podcast. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast. Does and are thinking, oh my word, we're so behind on amendments. This is so complex. This sounds like Greek to me, uh, integrity can help you get that all sorted out. We can get it done pretty quickly, and we can get you back to compliance ASAP. I mean, it's what we do. We're really good at it. So if you're feeling overwhelmed by this, give us a call.
SPEAKER_02:After listening to all of this, which it's a lot, can we make this list into a handy-dandy guidance for our listeners?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know what? I'd be down with that, but I want to make sure that our listeners remember my caveat from the beginning of this conversation that these general lists like this often miss specific, detailed amendment requirements. So if we can get that caveat on there, I would be happy to publish that list, but I don't want you as the listener to be using this as the one and only list. There are other kinds of amendments that we did not cover today for different kinds of plans. I would hate for you to miss some amendments because you were relying on our general list.
SPEAKER_02:Great. We can make sure your caveat gets on the guidance, no problem. Thank you so much, Shannon. I feel like I learned a lot today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Haley. I'm really glad you brought this up because amendments are a chronic source of confusion and anxiety for a lot of our clients and listeners. So I'm glad we went through this. I think we will all be better for it at the end.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Shannon.
