Project R.O.S.E. Seeks Protection for DIY
Collection Sites
Date: October 1, 2004
Project R.O.S.E.
(Recycled Oil Saves Energy) has served as Alabama’s volunteer do-it-yourself
(DIY) used oil collection program since 1977.
Since the program’s inception, we have depended on the volunteer spirit
of citizens through Alabama’s communities of quick-lube facilities, auto parts
stores, service stations and “Mom & Pop” auto repair businesses to collect
Alabama’s DIY oil. To date, Alabama
has more than 600 documented used oil collection sites (see http://prose.eng.ua.edu).
H.R. 3543 clarifies that
DIY collection sites covered by the Superfund Service Station Dealer Exemption
are supposed to be protected from offsite third-party liability from November
8, 1986 forward. Failure to pass H.R.
3543 would seriously jeopardize the volunteer collection programs upon which
Project R.O.S.E. and similar state programs rely to keep used oil out of
community environments. For Project
R.O.S.E., the potential for polluting the environment would increase by the
loss of nearly 450 of our 600 active collection sites.
We have a past example of
what happens to volunteer DIY collection sites when threatened with the burden
of stringent regulatory controls. In
the late 1980’s, EPA simply posed the question, “should used motor oil be
listed as a hazardous waste?” In less than a month, Project R.O.S.E. lost more
than half of its volunteer sites. We
could not recruit new locations. When
EPA decided not to pursue the hazardous waste legislation, it still took our
program nearly 2 years to recover the sites we lost and even longer to instill
the confidence that if you volunteer to be an environmental steward, you will
have some measure of protection.
For 27 years, Project
R.O.S.E. has actively recruited small businesses to act as used oil collection
locations,citing the Service Station Dealer Exemption status and EPA’s
encouragement to enlist private citizens in the fight to capture and properly
recycle DIY used oil. In good faith,
these volunteer businesses selected licensed transporters, and assumed onsite
spill risks and the expense of collecting DIY oil to protect their communities
from improper disposal. Ambiguous
language in the statute should not be used to eliminate seven years of
exemption coverage after-the-fact.
Environmentally conscious
businesses that volunteer to collect DIY oil should not be held liable for the
unknown illegal actions of a used oil transporter or recycler.
We strongly encourage
members of Congress to fix this hole in the regulatory exemption for the
volunteer DIY used oil collection site.
Supporting H.R. 3543 to guarantee the full intended coverage period of
the exemption will renew the trust of small businesses. The government will continue to
safeguard the private collection of DIY used oil that would otherwise end up in
our sources of drinking water, recreational areas, and soil that produces our
food.
Sheri D. Powell
Project R.O.S.E.
Coordinator
The University of Alabama
Chemical & Biological
Engineering Department
Box 870203
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0203
(O) 205.348.4878 (F)
205.348.7558
Email: spowell@coe.eng.ua.edu