Oil Spill Response Plans News

On August 18, 1990, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) was enacted into law. Section 4202 of that Act amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA or Clean Water Act) to require tank vessels and marine transportation-related facilities to prepare and submit to the US Coast Guard plans for responding, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worse case discharge, and to a substantial threat of such a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance carried in bulk as cargo.

Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) a mere 17 months after the disastrous oil spill following the grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound. Among the many provisions in the voluminous bill was a detailed planning requirement. For the first time, tank vessels and facilities handling oil in bulk were required to develop extensive plans for responding to a worst case discharge of oil into waters of the United States. As regards vessels and marine-transportation-related facilities, the U.S.

The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) through 2019, in addition to improving safety and oversight. The bill increases standards for pipeline workers operating near or in the Great Lakes. It also mandates that pipeline companies prepare their equipment for harsh winter weather and create an emergency plan for spills in icy conditions. "The legislation would include designating the Great Lakes a high consequence area, updating oil spill response plans to include ice cover and requiring reviews of pipeline age and integrity," says an official statement. The pipeline legislation now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) informs it has recently tested and verified the sound working condition of various response equipment used in the Gulf of Mexico region. Analysts with BSEE’s Oil Spill Preparedness Division boarded the pollution control vessel Louisiana Responder at Fort Jackson, La. on July 14 to test the response readiness of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. While conducting an equipment verification, the team witnessed the testing of a skimmer and other associated equipment, stored in Buras, La., on the Mississippi River.

A Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling rig that will search for oil in the Arctic pulled out of its temporary base in Seattle on Monday for the trip north to Alaska as dozens of activists in kayaks tried to stop its movement, authorities said. Live television showed the rig being towed out of its terminal at the Port of Seattle with kayakers fanning out in an arc to try to prevent it from reaching shipping channels and heading out to the Puget Sound. Greenpeace USA said the kayaks had slowed the rig's progress and that 13 protesters had been detained by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard said the protesters would be fined for violating a safety zone around the vessel.

A divided federal appeals court rejected an effort by environmental groups to void a U.S. agency's approval of two oil spill response plans by Royal Dutch Shell Plc related to the company's oil leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas on Alaska's Arctic coast.   By a 2-1 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected a claim that the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is part of the Department of the Interior, acted unlawfully in approving the plans, which relate to leases from 2005, 2007 and 2008.   Many environmental advocates oppose offshore energy exploration in the Arctic, on concern that any spill might prove difficult to clean up once production begins.     (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Marine and coastal environment specialist, BMT Oceanica (BMT), a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has been awarded the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association’s (APPEA) “Understanding the Risks of Unplanned Discharges” study. BMT Oceanica will be working with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to deliver this key project which will update current knowledge on the potential environmental impacts of unplanned releases of hydrocarbons and other chemicals into the marine environment. Phase one of the project is already underway and includes an international scientific review and the development of vulnerability assessment model that will help APPEA members enhance environmental and oil spill response plans.

The Coast Guard 9th District, partner agencies, and Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership will conduct a full-scale oil spill response exercise in Indian River, Michigan, Wednesday. More than 200 participants from the Coast Guard; Enbridge; the Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet County Office of Emergency Management; Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; and the Environmental Protection Agency, will participate in the exercise, which simulates a breach in Enbridge’s Line 5 and a worst-case discharge of light crude oil.

The UK P&I Club notifies that the “Nontank Vessel Response Plans and Other Response Plan Requirements” (NTVRP) final rule  required owners or operators of nontank vessels 400 gt and above to submit oil spill response plans for vessels operating on the navigable waters of the United States by 30th January 2014. In the meantime, the Coast Guard used an Interim Operating Authorization (IOA) process to assist vessel owners and operators to meet the
 deadline and continue to operate, but this IOA will expire at the end of July. The Club advises that if your non-tank vessels trade to the  US and you do not already have an Approved Vessel Response Plan in place…

Sheriff Craig Apple assured a room of concerned citizens that county emergency crews were prepared to handle an oil-train accident involving three or four tank cars. Firefighters have been training to combat railcar fires with foam, and evacuation plans are detailed in a 500-page emergency response plan, Apple told residents in a May 12 address. Albany's tracks handle as much as a fourth of the oil pumped from North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale, or up to several 100-car trains per day, each carrying 70,000 barrels. It is one of several spots along North America's new oil-by-rail corridors where residents and officials are restless, following six fiery derailments in the past 10 months.

Applicability: Non-tank vessels of 400 gt or more of any flag, which are self-propelled, carrying oil of any kind as fuel, and bound for a port or place in the U.S. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has published a Final Rule which took effect on 30 October, 2013, requiring owners or operators of non-tank vessels to submit oil spill response plans (known as Non-Tank Vessel Response Plans (NTVRPs)) by January 30, 2014. Non-tank vessels are vessels other than tank vessels. Tank vessels are generally defined as those constructed or adapted to carry oil in bulk as cargo or as oil cargo residue. The NTVRP Rule updates, and aligns with, the existing IMO and US MARPOL Annex I requirements for a Shipboard Oil Pollution and Emergency Plan (SOPEP)…

The "Nontank Vessel Response Plans and Other Response Plan Requirements" (NTVRP) final rule, which was published in the Federal Register on September 30, 2013, requires vessel owners or operators of nontank vessels 400 gross tons and above to prepare and submit oil spill response plans for vessels operating on the navigable waters of the United States by January 30, 2014. Because many of the requirements in the NTVRP final rule are statutory mandates and regulatory constraints on our ability to extend the implementation date…

The clock is ticking toward the deadline to submit to the U.S. Coast Guard an oil spill response plan that meets the requirements of the NTVRP regulation. The long-awaited nontank vessel response plan (NTVRP) rulemaking was published on September 30, 2013 and came into effect on October 30, 2013. Neither of these are significant dates for the owners, operators, and masters of nontank vessels operating on the navigable waters of the United States. The truly significant date is January 30, 2014.

Dennis L. Bryant retired from the U.S. Coast Guard with the rank of Captain after 27 years active duty. His billets included serving on the icebreaker NORTHWIND for several years including in 1969 when it escorted the tanker MANHATTAN through the Northwest Passage (this was back in the old days, when there was real ice in the Arctic). He also spent various tours as a law specialist, including an assignment as the Coast Guard’s Law of the Sea officer. He also served a tour in the…

The "Nontank Vessel Response Plans and Other Response Plan Requirements" (NTVRP) final rule, which was published in the Federal Register on September 30, 2013, requires vessel owners or operators of nontank vessels 400 gross tons and above to prepare and submit oil spill response plans for vessels operating on the navigable waters of the United States. Additionally, the final rule requires the submission of a Vessel Response Plan (VRP) Control Number with the vessel’s advance notice of arrival. Since August 2008, the Coast Guard has been enforcing the statutory requirement to prepare and submit oil spill response plans for nontank vessels 1,600 gross tons or greater and has been issuing 2-year Interim Operating Authorization (IOA) letters to demonstrate compliance. Effective Date Vs.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced publication of the final rule to increase pollution response preparedness for nontank vessels carrying oil in U.S. waters. The final rule establishes the content of oil discharge response plans so nontank vessel owners and operators understand how to comply with the preparation and submission requirements of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Acts of 2004 and 2006. The CGMTAs amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, requiring owners and operators of nontank vessels to prepare and submit oil spill response plans. The final rule also updates the International Shipboard Oil Pollution Emergency Plan requirements that apply to all nontank vessels and certain tank vessels.

“Even a cursory glance at Shell’s oil spill response plans shows that the company could not deal with an accident in these remote and challenging waters, and we’re disappointed that the court ruled in Shell’s favour. Despite admitting that a spill in the frozen north is inevitable, Shell operated with a response plan that relied on untested technology and equipment totally incapable of working effectively in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. The company’s claim that it could handle a worst-case spill in the Chukchi Sea is absurd. “Safe drilling in the far north is a fantasy.

Nearly 250 first responders participated in a National Preparedness Response Exercise Program in Los Angeles including U.S. Coast Guard, Chevron, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response, NOAA, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Los Angeles County Fire Department, El Segundo Fire Department, Oiled Wildlife Care Network, Marine Spill Response Corporation, National Response Corporation, The Response Group, CardnoEntrix, Clean Harbors, Environmental Science Services and Gallagher Marine. Several other local first responders attended the exercise as observers, May 14, 2013. The National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) is designed to test oil spill response plans of certain vessels and facilities.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) issued three significant documents addressing response, enforcement, and safety issues related to offshore operations in August 2012. Specifically, BSEE issued (1) new guidance concerning regional Oil Spill Response Plans (“OSRPs”), (2) formalized policy addressing direct enforcement actions against contractors engaged in offshore activities, and (3) a Final Rule implementing new safety measures related to well control operations occurring on the outer continental shelf (“OCS”). The following is a summary of these new developments.

MWCC to Deploy Capping Stack in Gulf of Mexico. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has initiated the first ever drill designed to deploy critical pieces of state-of-the-art well control equipment to the ultra-deep seabed of the Gulf of Mexico in an effort to exercise the oil and gas industry’s response to a potential subsea blowout. The multi-week exercise, launched at 8:10 am CDT and employing the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC), is part of a series…

Director Watson Visits Arctic Drilling Rigs for First-Hand Look at Safety Equipment, Meets with Alaska Native Community Leaders, Shell Officials; Today holding media conference call to discuss visit and BSEE inspection and oversight activities. As part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to safe and responsible offshore energy exploration and development, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Jim Watson today visited the two drilling rigs that Shell has proposed using for exploration activities in the arctic this summer.

Regulation shapes the workboat industry perhaps more than any other single factor. This regulatory seascape includes a myriad of onerous and ever-changing rules. A ‘SITREP’ on those choppy waters is therefore in order. Last December, the Coast Guard closed the public comment period following its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) requiring nearly all towing vessels to obtain Certificates of Inspection under Subchapter M of CFR 46. The Coast Guard’s Towing Vessel National Center of Expertise (NCE) estimates that there are 5,800 U.S.

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director James A. Watson delivered remarks today at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. Director Watson discussed recent recruitment incentives, BSEE's offshore safety focus and regulatory priorities. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s continued efforts to enhance safety offshore. This is my first time at OTC, and I have been extremely impressed by the scientific and technical know-how on display…