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Daniel Gilligan, President <br /> Petroleum Marketers Association of America <br /> 1901 N. Fort Myer Drive- Suite 500 <br /> Arlington, VA 22209-1604 <br /> Dear Mr. Gilligan: <br /> This letter is in response to your request for the Agency's view regarding whether several <br /> approaches under consideration by your members would satisfy 40 CFR §112.7(a)(2)'s <br /> "equivalent environmental protection"provision and for clarification of the scope of the <br /> requirements in 40 CFR §112.7(h)(entitled"Facility tank car and tank truck loading/unloading <br /> rack(excluding offshore facilities)"). We discuss each of your proposals and questions below. <br /> Please note that the guidance provided in this letter is based on generalized assumptions and may <br /> not be applicable in a particular case based on site-specific circumstances. <br /> "Equivalent Environmental Protection" <br /> Integrity Testing <br /> The newly amended SPCC provisions regarding bulk storage container integrity require, <br /> among other things, that each aboveground container be tested for integrity"on a regular <br /> schedule." 40 CFR §112.8(c)(6). These regulations further provide that"you must combine <br /> visual inspection with another testing technique such as hydrostatic testing, radiographic testing, <br /> ultrasonic testing, acoustic emissions testing, or another system of non-destructive shell testing." <br /> As you know, however, the regulations also allow deviations from this requirement where "you <br /> provide equivalent environmental protection by some other means of spill prevention, control, or <br /> countermeasure." 40 CFR §112.7(a)(2). You have asked whether, for shop-built containers, <br /> visual inspection plus certain actions to ensure that the containers are not in contact with the soil <br /> would likely be considered to provide "equivalent environmental protection"to visual inspection <br /> plus another form of testing. <br /> It is our view that for well-designed shop-built containers with a shell capacity of 30,000 <br /> gallons or under, combining appropriate visual inspection with the measures described below <br /> would generally provide environmental protection equivalent to that provided by visual <br /> inspection plus another form of testing. Specifically, the Agency generally believes that visual <br /> inspection plus elevation of a shop-built container in a manner that decreases corrosion potential <br />