Commonwealth Campus Spill Response

Each Penn State Commonwealth Campus has a campus specific spill response plan that is called a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures Plan (SPCC) and/or a Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency Plan (PPC). In addition, each Commonwealth Campus has a designated Emergency Coordinator who is responsible for implementing the spill response plans.

While all spills and releases of oil and hazardous materials must be properly cleaned up, Penn State has taken a risk-based approach to spill response and notification procedures. In this approach, three categories of spills/releases have been defined in order of increasing risk:

• nuisance spills/releases,
• moderate spills/releases, and
• large or high-impact spills/releases.

Spills/releases are dynamic, and a spill which begins as a nuisance or moderate event, may escalate to a large or high-impact spill. Therefore, these categories should be viewed as providing general guidelines of the response and notification requirements.

Spills are easiest to clean up if they are kept to paved or concrete areas. If the spill occurs on these areas, great effort should be made to keep it on these surfaces and not allow it to migrate to soil, into storm sewers or manholes, or other surface water. If a spill enters surface water or the storm water system, it becomes a high-impact spill and procedures for large or high-impact spills must be followed.

Contact EHS at (814) 865-6391 or see the following for additional information on environmental protection and spill response:

Environmental Protection/Spill Response

For information on Fuel Handling Practices, Spill Response, and Responsibilities for Contractors, see the following:

Fuel Handling, Spill and Contractor Responsibilities