Milk Storage Tanks to be Exempt from Oil Spill Prevention Rule

IDFA Applauds EPA for Common Sense Approach

WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Dairy Foods Association has learned that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not require milk silos, tanks and other equipment to comply with the Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Rule (SPCC) when the rule's obligations go into effect in November.  It is expected that EPA will issue a final rule giving a permanent exemption to milk storage tanks up to 1 million gallons in size soon.

"We are pleased that the EPA has looked at this issue carefully, listened to our concerns and responded with a common sense approach," said Connie Tipton, IDFA president and CEO.  "We appreciate the agency's action to provide a permanent exemption for milk from spill prevention regulations that were put in place to target traditional oil spills."

IDFA has worked with the EPA on oil-related environmental issues since Congress enacted the Edible Oil Regulatory Reform Act in 1995, which requires federal agencies to distinguish how government regulations apply to non- petroleum classes of oil.

The SPCC regulations have been in place since December 11, 1973 but have not been applied to milk specifically.  In 2009 EPA proposed to amend the SPCC requirements to codify that milk silos, tanks and other equipment are exempt.  

IDFA has been asking for an interpretation that milk is not oil, or in the alternative, a dairy exemption since 2005 and supported the EPA's proposed rule last year.  Read more.

Last week members of the House of Representatives' Dairy Caucus urged the EPA to confirm the exemption for milk.

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, DC, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $110-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.

SOURCE International Dairy Foods Association

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