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Week Ending July 1, 2005
HR 1412 To amend the Ports and Waterways Safety Act to require notification of the Coast Guard regarding obstructions to navigation, and for other purposes.
BRIEF
The bill would address several stopgap measures to thwart future oil spills and mitigation of past spills into the Delaware River.
First the bill requires immediate notification of the Secretary of the Army and the US Coast Guard of any release of anything-including oil-that presents a navigation hazard on the river.
The bill also sets up a graduated system of fines for single hull vessels with only double-hull sides or a double- hull bottom that spill oil. An incident in 2005 would be fined $1,550 per gross ton. In 2006 that would rise to $1,900 per gross ton and any year after would bring a fine of $2,250 per gross ton. Fully double-hulled vessels would pay less in fines: Per gross ton the vessels would pay $1350 in 2005, $1,500 in 2006 and $1,700 in 2007 and thereafter.
“For single-hulled tankers, the liability limit would increase to the greater of $14 million per spill or $1,900 per gross ton in 2006 and $2,250 per gross ton in 2007 and beyond. For double-hulled tankers, the liability limit would increase to the greater of $14 million per spill or $1,500 per gross ton in 2006 and $1,700 per gross ton in 2007 and beyond,” the CBO calculated.
Because spilled oil can become submerged the bill would direct attention to a program that would detect, monitor and evaluate submerged oil impacts and develop methods to remove or disperse the pollutant.
The bill also creates a Delaware River Advisory Committee to ride herd on progress and future problems. The committee would include tug and barge operators, shipping brokers and oil refinery operators; environmentalist, licensed pilots and a labor union representative.
Sponsor: Representative Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-2nd)
Vote: Passed House by voice vote (June 28, 2005)
Cost to the taxpayers: $16 million 2005 through 2010. “The savings to the federal government associated with raising private liability limits for tank vessels is uncertain because significant oil spills are relatively rare; in fact, since the implementation of OPA (Oil Pollution Act) in 1991, only six spills from such vessels have exceeded the existing liability limits. (In total, those spills have accounted for about $45 million--around 10 percent--of the roughly $490 million that has been spent from the OSLTF (Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund) through 2004.) Moreover, the cost of such spills depends on a variety of factors besides the type and size of a vessel--the location of a spill, for example, is an important factor that cannot be predicted.
“Assuming that the frequency and severity of future oil spills from tanker vessels will be similar to those experienced since OPA was implemented, CBO estimates that increasing the existing liability limits for tanker vessels by the amounts specified by H.R. 1412 would reduce average annual spending from the OSLTF for spills from tank vessels from about $17 million (in 2005 dollars) to $16 million in fiscal year 2006, $14 million in 2007, and $13 million annually thereafter. Savings would be lower in 2006 and 2007 because the increases in limits would be phased in over the 2006-2007 period and because savings from spills in 2006 and 2007 would be realized over the three- or four-year period that it typically takes to clean up spills and pay claims. Most of the savings from the new limits would result from reductions in the share of cleanup and other response costs that are paid from the OSLTF,” the CBO noted.
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MORE INFORMATION
On Friday, November 26, 2004, the T/V ATHOS I, a 750-foot, single-hull tank vessel, struck a submerged object while being maneuvered to a berth on the Delaware River near Paulsboro, New Jersey. The grounding caused the vessel to lose power and resulted in a release of heavy crude oil from the vessel's oil storage tanks. An investigation of the river bottom found a large section of iron pump housing and several other objects that were partially submerged in river sediments in the area of the vessel's grounding. The existence of the bottom debris was unknown to the maritime community and was not included on any navigational chart or in any notice to mariners.
The Coast Guard has estimated that total cleanup costs and natural resources damages resulting from the grounding of the ATHOS I could cost more than $200 million. Under current liability limits, the owners of the vessel are potentially responsible for costs of up to approximately $45 million. Despite requirements in current law, oil spill liability limits have not been adjusted to reflect inflation since the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
As part of the Service's Maritime Safety mission, the Coast Guard is designated as the lead Federal agency in responding to oil spills in coastal and marine waters. Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Coast Guard established specialized district response groups to respond to oil spills as quickly as possible. The Act requires the creation of Area Committees throughout the nation to develop and implement Area Contingency Plans for responding to oil spills in a particular location and requires vessel and facility operators to develop detailed response plans for incidents involving those vessels or facilities.
The Coast Guard, in conjunction with Federal, State, local and private sector partners, followed the OPA requirements and the local implementation plan in responding to the ATHOS I spill. However, the response efforts highlighted some shortfalls in the law and in Federal regulations regarding the declaration of a release of an object that may create an obstruction to navigation in U.S. waterways, the content of information included in Area Contingency Plans, and the focus of the Federal oil spill research program established under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. H.R. 1412 includes provisions that address these shortfalls.
H.R. 1412 makes several amendments to current law to improve the Federal government's capability to prevent and respond to future oil spills in the Delaware River and other navigable waters of the United States.
Section 1 states that the legislation may be referred to as the `Delaware River Protection Act of 2005'.
Section 2 establishes a requirement to notify the Coast Guard of a release of an object from a vessel or facility that creates an obstruction to navigation. Individuals who fail to `promptly' notify the Coast Guard of a loss of such an object will be subject to existing civil and criminal penalties under the Ports and Waterways Safety Act. These penalties include a fine of up to $25,000 per day and criminal penalties of up to 5-10 years for willful and knowing violation of the notification requirement.
Under Subchapter C of title 33, Code of Federal Regulations, owners of vessels that could obstruct navigation in U.S. waters must mark and report the existence of the obstruction. However, there is no current statutory or regulatory requirement that an owner of an object, other than a vessel, notify the Coast Guard after the release of such an object into the navigable waterways of the United States.
Section 3 amends the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) to adjust oil spill liability limits to reflect the change in the Consumer Price Index since the Act's passage in 1990. OPA established liability limits for tank vessels at a level of $1,200 per gross ton. Under OPA, liability for cleanup costs and damages resulting from oil spills rests with a `responsible party' who is usually the owner or operator of a vessel. In the event of a spill, the responsible party must pay removal costs incurred by the government or others, and damages to claimants who are injured by the spill. Damages may include natural resources damages, damages to real or personal property, damages for loss of use of a natural resource (fishery, etc.), damages for lost revenue or profit caused by a spill, and damages for the cost of government response necessitated by the spill. Under OPA, the President is required to adjust these limits every three years according to changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Coast Guard has not made these adjustments as required by law and currently insists that the Service has no authority to adjust the limits as the authority resides at the Department level. The authority was delegated by the President first to the Department of Transportation and was later transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
The provision implements these adjustments. The provision would increase liability limits to the current CPI-adjusted level (approximately $1,700 per gross ton) over a three year period. The provision makes distinctions between single-hull vessels and double-hull vessels. Liability levels for double-hull vessels would be increased by $500 per gross ton over 3 years, while liability levels for single-hull vessels would be increased by $1,050 per gross ton over three years. This amount is equal to twice the adjustment (approximately $525 per gross ton) based on the increase in the CPI from 1990-2004. The provision also requires the President to adjust the liability limits within three years of the enactment of the Act and every three years thereafter.
Section 4 requires the Philadelphia Area Committee to annually update its area contingency plan to include the most recent environmental sensitivity data that has been collected by State and Federal agencies. At the time of the spill in the Delaware River, the Philadelphia Area Contingency Plan did not include updated environmental sensitivity data that had been collected by annual surveys conducted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Coast Guard has established 46 Area Committees nationwide. These committees act as preparedness and planning bodies and are composed of representatives from Federal, state, and local government agencies with definitive responsibilities for each area's environmental integrity. Each Area Committee has developed an Area Contingency Plan and is charged with periodically updating the Plan with information from Committee members and interested parties to further prevent and improve response to future oil spills in each Area.
Section 5 requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in conjunction with the Coast Guard, to establish a submerged oil research program to research methods to detect, monitor and remove submerged oil and improve modeling capabilities to better predict the movement and behavior of submerged oil. The provision also requires the Coast Guard to carry out a demonstration project to demonstrate technologies and processes to detect and remove submerged oil from waterways including the Delaware River.
Title VII of the Oil Pollution Act establishes an Oil Pollution Research and Development Program and an Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research to carry out the Program. The program established under this section would carry out specific research on the effects and persistence of submerged oil in addition to the research program that is carried out by the Committee. A large percentage of the oil that was released from the ATHOS I was or still remains submerged at the bottom of the river, and little work has been done to increase capabilities to predict the persistence of or vertical and horizontal movement of oil within the water column.
The Committee recommends that the efforts of the research program be focused on developing methods and technologies to remove or diminish the persistence of submerged oil that is currently found in the Delaware River and other U.S. waterways. Further, the Committee recommends that the effort of the demonstration program be concentrated on evaluating methods and technologies of removing submerged oil of the type that was released into the Delaware River as a result of the grounding of the ATHOS I and under the conditions that are observed in the area of the Delaware River that was impacted by such oil.
Section 6 establishes an advisory committee composed of representatives from port authorities, shipping interests, oil refineries, labor, river pilots, environmental groups and the general public. The Committee is tasked with developing recommendations for Congress on the prevention of and response to future oil spills on the Delaware River and Bay. The Committee will provide an additional outlet for interested parties and the general public to provide information and make recommendations to improve preparedness in the area. The Committee's term will expire one year after the Committee's members are appointed by the Commandant of the Coast Guard.
Section 7 amends section 407 of the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-295) to increase the authorized funding for maritime fire and safety activities carried out by non-profit organizations in direct cooperation with the Coast Guard to an amount of $1.5 million.
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No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.