The Maine DEP completes new natural hazard risk assessment guidance for Marine Oil Terminals

January 9, 2025

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection completed new guidance to assist marine oil terminal owners and operators in planning for climate change. This new planning tool is a Natural Hazard Risk Assessment (NHRA). A NHRA developed under the requirements of the DEP's Chapter 600, Oil Discharge Prevention and Pollution Control Rules for Marine Oil Terminal Facilities, Transportation Pipelines and Vessels, must evaluate the risks from natural hazards (flooding, sea level rise, and storm damage) to terminal infrastructure and other assets. The guidance utilizes the best available scientific evidence and local knowledge to assess risks associated with a 100-year flood event and a 100-year flood given Intermediate and High Sea Level Rise (SLR) scenarios. A NHRA must also identify how terminals will manage a 24-hour, 100-year precipitation event in their facility drainage system. The NHRA guidance document is posted on the DEPs website.

The guidance was produced through a collaborative effort of a Natural Hazard Risk Assessment Workgroup over the past year. The workgroup included terminal representatives, local officials, community members, terminal consultants, climate changes specialists, and DEP staff. The workgroup process was especially informative given the January 13 and 15, 2024 coastal storms in Maine which set record high water levels at terminal sites.

A NHRA will be submitted with each new or renewal oil terminal license application filed by a marine oil terminal facility to the Department with the first of the submittals expected in August of 2025. By March of 2029 each facility in the State will have submitted a NHRA. The updated requirements of Chapter 600 state that a NHRA must be done every 5 years. The NHRA reports must include an implementation schedule for all adaptations recommended or required in the report.

For additional information, contact: David R. Madore, Deputy Commissioner [email protected]