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Acronyms and Glossary of Terms
Relating to Oil Pollution Prevention
This guide has been developed to provide owners and operators
of facilities that must comply with the Oil Pollution Prevention regulations,
under Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 112, with a reference
for the acronyms and terms associated with the regulation. Some of these
terms are also defined under 40 CFR Part 112.2 Definitions. The
definitions in this guide apply specifically to the EPA Oil Pollution
Prevention Program and may not be applicable to other EPA or other agency
programs.
ACP: Area Contingency Plan
ANSI: American National Standards Institute
API: American Petroleum Institute
ASME: American Society of Mechanical
Engineers
AST: Aboveground storage tank
CFR: Code of Federal Regulations
CWA: Clean Water Act (also FWPCA)
DOT: Department of Transportation
EPA: United States Environmental Protection
Agency
ERAP: Emergency Response Action Plan
ERNS: Emergency Response Notification
System
FRP: Facility Response Plan
FWPCA: Federal Water Pollution Control
Act (also CWA)
ICP: Integrated Contingency Plan
MOU: Memorandum of Understanding
NCP: National Contingency Plan
NFPA: National Fire Protection Association
NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System
NRC: National Response Center
OPA or OPA90: Oil Pollution Act of 1990
OSC: On Scene Coordinator
OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
OSRO: Oil Spill Removal Organization
PE: Professional Engineer
PREP: (National) Preparedness for Response
Exercise Program
RA: Regional Administrator
RCP: Regional Contingency Plan
RSPA: Research and Special Programs Administration
(of DOT)
RQ: Reportable quantity
SOP: Standard operating procedure
SPCC: Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure
UL: Underwriters Laboratories
USCG: United States Coast Guard
UST: Underground storage tank
Aboveground
storage tank: any tank or other container that is aboveground,
partially buried, bunkered, or in a subterranean vault. This includes
floating fuel systems.
Barrel: 42 U.S. gallons at 60 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Belowground storage unit: a tank or other
container located completely below the natural grade of the earth.
Berms: either dirt, concrete or other
constructed embankments that are commonly employed for secondary containment
or drainage diversion purposes at oil storage or related operations.
Boom: a temporary floating barrier used
to contain an oil spill.
Bulk storage tank: any container used
to store oil. These tanks are used for purposes including, but not limited
to, the storage of oil prior to use, while being used, or prior to further
distribution in commerce.
Bunkered tank: a storage tank constructed
or placed in the ground by cutting the earth and re-covering it such
that the tank breaks the natural grade of the land, or an abovegrade
tank covered with earth. A bunkered tank is considered to be an AST
and must have secondary containment.
Catch basin: a depression, trench, or
pit, which is a collection point for drainage, either water or spilled
oil, that provides a means of containment for and prevents the uncontrolled
discharge of the collected liquid from a facility or oil storage area.
Cathodic protection: any one of several
methods for protecting underground tanks and pipelines from corrosion.
Corrosion results from an electric current which is caused by contact
between metal surfaces, water, and the chemicals present in soils and
water; cathodic protection counteracts this current.
Dike: an embankment or wall that contains
drainage water or spilled oil inside the walled area.
Discharge: any emission (other than natural
seepage), intentional or unintentional, and includes, but is not limited
to, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying or dumping.
For purposes of this part, the term "discharge" shall not
include any discharge of oil which is authorized by a permit issued
pursuant to Section 13 of the River and Harbor Act of 1899 (30 Stat.
1121, 33 U.S.C. 407), or Sections 402 or 405 of the FWPCA Amendments
of 1972 (86 Stat. 816 et seq., 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.).
Emulsification: the formation of a mixture
of two liquids, such as oil and water, in which one of the liquids is
in the form of fine droplets and is dispersed in the other.
Evaporation: the physical change by which
any substance is converted from a liquid to a vapor or gas.
Facility: any mobile or fixed onshore
or offshore building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe, or pipeline
used in oil well drilling operations, oil production, oil refining,
oil storage, and waste treatment. The boundaries of a facility may depend
on several site-specific factors, including, but not limited to, the
ownership or operation of buildings, structures, and equipment on the
same site and the types of activities at the site.
Facility Response
Plan: a detailed plan which must be prepared in accordance
with 40 CFR 112.20 by facilities which may cause "substantial harm"
to the environment or exclusive economic zone. The plan must contain
an emergency response action plan (ERAP) and demonstrate that a facility
has the resources to respond to a worst case scenario discharge.
Hydrocarbons: a large class of organic
compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen, common in petroleum products.
Impervious: incapable of being penetrated.
Secondary containment structures must be sufficiently impervious to
the types of products stored within the area of containment.
Incineration: the destruction of wastes
by burning at high temperatures.
Inland waters of the United States: those
waters of the United States lying inside the baseline from which the
territorial sea is measured and those waters outside such baseline which
are a part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
Level gauging systems and alarms: any
engineering control that indicates the level of liquid inside the tank
and that is installed on tanks to prevent overfilling and spilling of
liquid and damage to the tank(s).
Mobile or portable storage tank: any
container used to store oil and that is capable of being easily moved.
For example, a 55-gallon drum or a 3000-gallon tank on wheels would
both be considered mobile storage. These storage containers require
secondary containment, which must be addressed in the facility's SPCC
Plan.
Mousse: a thick, foamy oil and water
mixture formed when petroleum products are subjected to mixing with
water by the action of waves and wind.
Natural resources: land, fish, wildlife,
biota, air, water, groundwater, drinking water supplies, and other such
resources (including the resources of the exclusive economic zone) belonging
to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise controlled
by, the United States, any state or local government or Indian tribe,
or any foreign government.
Navigable waters: the waters of the United States including the territorial seas. This covers:
All waters that are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide.
All interstate waters, including interstate wetlands.
All other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds, the use, degradation, or destruction of which could affect interstate or foreign commerce including any waters that could be used for recreational purposes, or from which fish or shellfish could be taken and sold in interstate or foreign commerce; or that are used or could be used for industrial purposes by industries in interstate commerce.
All impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the United States under this section.
Tributaries of waters identified above and wetlands adjacent to waters identified above (other than waters that are themselves wetlands).
Waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or
lagoons designed to meet the requirements of the CWA (other than cooling
ponds as defined in 40 CFR 123.11(m), which also meet the criteria of
this definition) are not waters of the United States.
Offshore facility: any facility located
in, on, or under any of the navigable waters of the United States, which
is not a transportation-related facility.
Offshore oil drilling, production, or workover
facilities: may include all drilling or workover equipment,
wells, flowlines, gathering lines, platforms, and auxiliary non-transportation-related
equipment and facilities in a single geographical oil or gas field operated
by a single operator.
Oil: defined under several statutes including
the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). As
a result, overlapping regulatory interpretations exist. For this reason,
the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard are currently developing a nationally
consistent program policy and methodology for facilities to determine
whether a given substance is considered an oil under the existing CWA.Under
the CWA, the definition of oil includes oil of any kind and any form,
such as petroleum and nonpetroleum oils. Generally, oils fall into the
following categories: crude oil and refined petroleum products, edible
animal and vegetable oil, other oils of animal or vegetable origin,
and other nonpetroleum oils.
Many substances are easily recognizable as oils (e.g.,
gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene, and crude oil). Under the CWA
definition, many other substances are considered oils that may not be
easily recognizable by industry, including mineral oil, the oils of
vegetable and animal origin and other nonpetroleum oils. Therefore,
facilities should work closely with the EPA and USCG (if applicable)
to make determinations for the substances they store, transfer, and
refine.
Oil Removal Contingency Plan: when it
is determined that the installation of diversionary structures and equipment
listed in 40 CFR Part 112.7.
Specific gravity: the ratio of the density
of a substance to the density of water.
Spill event: a discharge of oil into
or upon the navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines
in harmful quantities, such that applicable water quality standards
are violated or that causes a film or sheen upon the water.
Spill history: if a facility has experienced
one or more spill events, the SPCC Plan must include a written description
of each such spill, corrective actions taken, and plans for preventing
its recurrence.
Storage capacity: the volume of a tank
or container, for purposes of determining the applicability of 40 CFR
Part 112, means the total capacity of the tank or container, whether
the tank or container is filled with oil, or a mixture of oil and other
substances, or is empty and not permanently closed.
Sump: a depression or trench constructed
to collect drainage of water or spilled oil from storage, transfer or
unloading areas.
Tank appurtenances: in addition to the tank itself, the additional pieces of equipment necessary to bring the tank into service. Examples of tank appurtenances include, but are not limited to:
Ladder and gaugers platform.
Shell manholes.
Inlet - outlet connections.
Drawoffs (condensate, water and product).
Gauge hatch.
Vent connections.
Liquid gauges and alarms.
Tar balls: dense, black, sticky spheres
of hydrocarbons formed from weathered oil.
Transportation-related: interstate and
intrastate onshore and offshore pipeline systems, including pumps and
related appurtenances, and in-line or breakout storage tanks needed
for the continuous operation of a pipeline system.
Underground
storage tank: a tank that is completely covered with soil,
situated below the natural grade of the land.
United States: the States, the District
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, Guam,
American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific
Islands.
Valve: a movable mechanism that opens
and closes to control the flow of liquid through a pipe or other passageway.
Examples of valves include check, ball, and gate.
Vessel: every description of watercraft
or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a
means of transportation on water, other than a public vessel.
Viscosity: the internal properties of
a liquid that offer resistance to flow. Substances that are extremely
viscous do not flow readily.
Weathering: action of the elements on
a substance, such as oil, that leads to disintegration or deterioration
of the substance.
Wetlands: those areas that are inundated
or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency or duration sufficient
to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence
of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
Wetlands generally include playa lakes, swamps, marshes, bogs, prairie
potholes, wet meadows, prairie river overflows, mudflats, and natural
ponds.
Workover: any of several remedial operations performed on a producing well in an attempt to restore or increase production. Sand or liner removal, casing repair, acidizing, fracture stimulation, cementing, deeper drilling, recompletion to a different producing zone or stratum, and sidetracking are some examples of workover operations.