Law and responsibilities for spills and tanks in the United States

Fuel spills and storage tanks sit where several areas of law meet. Workplace safety law protects the workers who respond to a spill. Fire codes govern how tanks and dispensers are built and run. Environmental law decides what must be reported, who pays for cleanup and how tanks must be monitored for leaks. Hazardous products rules cover labels, safety data sheets and training for fuel and the cleanup products used on it. And waste rules decide how contaminated absorbents must be stored, transported and disposed of. A station worker does not need to be a lawyer, but knowing which rules exist, who enforces them and what they expect of the people on shift makes it much easier to do the right thing quickly.

This lesson maps those rules at a high level. It does not quote clause numbers, because rules change and the details vary by province, state and municipality. When a detail matters, the station's written spill procedure, the company's environmental coordinator and the regulator's own guidance are the places to check.

Who makes the rules

In the United States, rules come from federal, state and local governments. For Northfield in Montana, they are:

• Workplace safety: federal OSHA, because Montana does not run its own state plan for private employers. The General Duty Clause, Hazard Communication, PPE rules and, for larger incidents, the emergency response standard (HAZWOPER) apply.
• Fire safety and tanks: the state fire code, based on the International Fire Code, and NFPA 30A for motor fuel dispensing, enforced by the state fire marshal and local fire departments.
• Underground storage tanks: EPA's UST regulations (40 CFR Part 280), which Montana runs through its Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). They set requirements for tank construction, release detection, spill and overfill prevention, walkthrough inspections, operator training, release reporting and financial responsibility.
• Spills to water: the Clean Water Act, which requires any oil discharge that causes a sheen on water to be reported to the National Response Center, and the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule for some aboveground storage.
• Hazardous products: OSHA Hazard Communication, which requires labels, safety data sheets and training.
• Waste: federal and state hazardous waste rules (RCRA), which decide how contaminated absorbents and fuel-water mixtures are classified and disposed of.

Federal rules in the background

Federal law applies directly in several ways. EPA's UST rules set the national minimum that every state program must meet. The Clean Water Act sheen rule applies everywhere: an oil discharge that creates a film or sheen on a creek, river or lake, however small, must be reported to the National Response Center. The SPCC rule applies to facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of aboveground oil storage in containers of 55 gallons or more that could reasonably discharge to navigable waters; most stations whose fuel is all underground in regulated tanks are outside it, but a station with aboveground tanks may be inside it. Transport of fuel and of waste from the station falls under the Department of Transportation hazardous materials rules.

Who is responsible for what

The law places most responsibility on the owner and operator of the station and its tanks, but everyone on the site has a part to play.

Under EPA's 2015 UST rule, every UST facility must have trained Class A, Class B and Class C operators. Class A operators (usually at the company level) are responsible for the overall operation and compliance of the tank system. Class B operators handle day-to-day operation and maintenance, such as release detection records and walkthrough inspections. Class C operators are the employees on site who respond to alarms and emergencies, which at a station like Northfield means every attendant. Class C operators must be trained before they work alone at the station, and the facility must keep records of the training. Montana DEQ runs the state program and sets its own details.

The duty to act

Environmental law does not just require reporting; it requires action. The person responsible for a release must take reasonable steps to stop it, contain it and clean it up, and must not make it worse. In practice, that means the first actions of the worker on shift, stopping the source and protecting drains, are part of meeting the company's legal duties. A spill that is reported promptly and handled well is treated very differently from one that is ignored, hidden or washed down a drain.

This is also why the station procedure and records matter. When a regulator asks what happened, the company needs to show when the spill was found, what was done, how much was released and recovered, where the waste went and who was told. Lesson 9 covers the report itself, and Lesson 5 covers the waste paperwork.

Workers' rights and protections

Workers have rights during a spill, too. They have the right to know about the hazards of fuel and cleanup products, through labels, safety data sheets and training. They have the right to the PPE the job needs, provided by the employer. And they have the right to refuse work they believe is dangerous, such as being asked to clean up a large spill without training, equipment or ventilation, or to work beside a spill that has not been made safe. A worker who refuses unsafe work must follow the procedure for doing so, but must not be punished for raising a genuine concern.

Under federal OSHA, workers are protected from retaliation for raising safety concerns, and in limited circumstances may refuse work that presents an imminent danger; HSE-102 covers the details.

For supervisors: the binder at the counter

Keep a spill binder at the counter, next to the tank gauge console. It should contain the station's spill procedure on one page, the phone numbers for emergency services, the manager, the environmental coordinator, the contractor and the regulator's spill line, a site plan with drains and spill kits marked, blank spill report forms, and the safety data sheets for the fuels and cleanup products. Check it every quarter: phone numbers and contractors change. A worker on the late shift should be able to handle the first hour of a spill with that binder and nothing else.

Records the law expects

Most of what an inspector checks at a fuel station is paperwork. The records prove that the tanks are being watched, that alarms are answered and that spills are handled. If a record is missing, the inspector has to assume the job was not done. Keeping records is therefore part of the job, not an extra.

When the inspector visits

A Montana DEQ inspector, a fire inspector or, after a spill, an EPA or state responder may visit the station. Montana DEQ inspects UST facilities on a regular cycle. The worker on shift should be polite, ask for identification, and call the manager (or Class B operator) right away. The inspector may ask to see the tank gauge, spill buckets, sumps, spill kits and the records. Workers should answer honestly about what they know and did, and should not guess about things they do not know; saying "I don't know, but the manager can tell you" is a perfectly good answer.

Inspectors see the same problems again and again: spill buckets full of water and fuel, alarms silenced and not followed up, inventory records that were never reconciled, empty spill kits, and staff who cannot say where the storm drain goes. Each of these is cheap to fix before the visit and expensive to explain after a spill. Lesson 7 covers the tank equipment and Lesson 8 the inventory records in detail.

After the visit, the manager should read the inspection report carefully, fix every item it lists by the date it gives, and keep a copy with proof of the fix, such as a contractor's invoice or a photo of the new spill kit. An item that appears on two inspections in a row is a sign that the station's own checks are not working, and that is the point to change the routine rather than just fix the item again.