CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES


WASHINGTON, DC 20515

2211 RAYRURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING 


WASHINGTON, DC 20515


TRLEPHONE: (202) 225-2165


FAX: 12021225-1593


INTERNET: www.housR.gov/co)linEer5On

COLLIN C. PETERSON 

7Th DISTRICT. MINNESOTA 

COMMIrTEE ON AGRICULTURE


RANKING MEMBER

The Honorable Lisa Jackson 

Administrator 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW 

Washington, D.C. 20460 

Dear Administrator Jackson: 

I write to express my concerns about the implementation of the Spill Prevention, Control, 

and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule as it pertains to farmers in my district. 

I have been getting calls about this rule from concerned farmers, state representatives, 

and University of Minnesota Extension agents across my district, and each call has one 

thing in common: uncertainty. The lack of information that seems to be out there is 

frustrating. Folks do not know if the rule applies to them, when the deadline is, or how 

EPA will be checking for compliance. 

According to your website, the SPCC rule requires farms that store more than 1,320 

gallons of oil or oil products to prepare and implement an SPCC Plan by November 10, 

2011. Fanns that store more than 10,000 gallons of petroleum products need to have 

their plans certified by a Professional Engineer (PE). This PE certification requirement 

creates additional concern as we have heard there is a lack of available engineers in the 

area. 

North Dakota was selected as one of eight states to participate in a cost share pilot 

program through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This adds to the 

confusion in my district as many farmers have wondered why they did not have the same 

option as their neighbors to the west. Further, many PEs are reportedly tied up on 

projects across the river, making them harder to get in our area. 

In short, there is a lack of clarity on this issue. I am enclosing a letter from Howard 

Person, a University of Minnesota Extension Educator who has been working with 

farmers in my district. Mr. Persons letter details the confusion surrounding the SPCC 

rule. 

714 LAKE AVENUE 1420 EAST COLLEGE DRIVE MN WHEAT GROWERS BULOING CENTRE POINT MALL 

SuIrE 107 MARSHALL, MN 66258 2603 WHEAT DRIVE 320 4TH STREET SW 

DETROIT LAKES MN 56501 1507) 537-2299 Rø LAKE FALLS, MN 56750 WII.LMAR, MN 56201

(218) 847-5056 FAx (507) 537-2298 216) 253-4356 (3201 235-1081 

FAX 1218) 847-5109 FAX: 1218) 253-4373 FAx: (320) 235-2651 
Sincerely, 

Collin C. Peterson 

Member of Congress

I look forward to working with you to ensure that farmers have a clearer picture of what 

is required of them and whether they have the ability to meet these deadlines, especially 

given flooding issues and the lack of available PBs, 

Thank you for your consideration of this matter. 
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Rep. Collin Peterson 

224 Rayburn 

House Office Building 

Washington D.C. 20515 

Re: Spill Protection Control & Countermeasures 

Dear Congressman Peterson: 

It's been a few months now since I started working with SPCC and I'm still getting calls from 

concerned farmers who only recently heard about the program or who are trying to work on 

compliance before harvest starts in a few weeks. I continue to have some concerns about the 

program and I'd like to share a few of those concerns with you in this letter, if I may. 

I would start with a lack of information from EPA. I started hearing about SPCC this spring from 

farmers who were told by their fuel supplier. The information provided to them was spotty, 

incomplete and often inaccurate. I didn't get a good handle on what was happening until I 

contacted North Dakota State University and spoke to Roxanne Johnson in their water quality 

department. Because North Dakota had a cost share program through NRCS there was a lot of 

information there and Ms. Johnson had done an outstanding job of putting together information 

and sample spill control plans that farmers could use as a guide to design and implement on their 

own farms. She allowed me to use her materials and I did a couple of meetings in Thief River 

Falls and Argyle with an excellent turnout. However, as I mentioned I'm still getting calls from 

farmers who are just hearing about it or confused and don't know what to do. 

Part of the confusion is in who has to comply and by when. There is a provision for new farmers 

who started after August of 2002 which gives them until this November to comply. Everyone 

else is supposed to already have a plan in place and just be updating it on a regular basis. The 

fact is almost no one has a plan as no one knew they needed one. My understanding is that this 

law has been in place since 1974. However I was told that prior to 2008, farms were not 

classified as fuel storage facilities and so were not regulated. In 2008, EPA amended their rules 

to include farms as fuel storage facilities and pretty much over night farmers were regulated but 

were unaware of the change. 

I'm also seeing some problems with the rules themselves. Farmers who have less than 10,000 

gallons of storage can develop and implement their own plan and with a bit of time and some 

explanation, I think this will work. However with today's agriculture, 10,000 gallons of fuel and 

oil on a farm site is not that much. Those folks with more than 10,000 gallons on the farm must
hire a certified professional engineer to design their plan and oversee its implementation. At 

present there aren't very many engineers working with SPCC so those that are tend to be hard to 

get and expensive. Remember if you were farming before 2002, you're suppose to have all this 

in place already so farmers are nervous about getting this done and it raises costs further as they 

push to do so. Further, North Dakota has cost share and so everyone's busy over there and hard 

to get already. Engineers design these sites to meet the rules but often don't think about 

managing the plan once it's done so these plans become more expensive to implement than need 

be and more complicated to follow. 

Tanks must also be inspected by a certified tank inspector every so many years, depending on the 

size and type of tank and whether it's on the ground or elevated. There aren't many of these tank 

inspectors around and no one knows who to call as they've never needed these folks before. 

Depending on the situation this inspector may have to do an ultra sound or other testing to 

determine the soundness of a tank. As a result, some on farm tanks cost more to keep in 

compliance than they're worth. Fuel is expensive to say the least and I can't think of a single on 

farm spill incident in our area. Farmers keep a close eye on these tanks because it's just too 

expensive to lose fuel in a spill. It would seem to me that if you have a dike to contain the 

contents of your largest tank and you have it off the ground enough to see if it's leaking, this 

should be enough. 

All these things appear to be happening is such a short time line as well, raising costs and 

concerns about the whole process. I wonder if you really need an engineer to design a site for 

more than 10,000 gallons or if it couldn't be done just as well by an NRCS engineer. They 

design lagoons for water and manure storage, I would think they could do it for fuel tanks as 

well, which would take the guess work out and reduce the cost significantly. Also, if farmers had 

a couple years to get this all done, I think it would ease concerns and reduce costs a bit as well. 

A cost share program like the eight pilot states had this year would go a long way in getting the 

process rolling, but I understand with budgets the way they are, that might be difficult. This is 

perhaps all the more reason to set some guides and let the farmers build their own. 

I hope I've explained my concerns sufficiently. If you have questions or need more detail, please 

don't hesitate to call me. 

Howard Person 

PenningtonlMarshall Extension Educator