On November 6, the United States Coast Guard held a public meeting in Washington, D.C. to review proposals regarding the installation of devices to monitor cargo levels aboard tank vessels. The issue is the last fragment of unfinished regulatory business compelled by the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ("OPA 90"). When OPA 90 was enacted, the U.S. yet, might presage an incipient structural failure. With an abundance of goodwill and a scarcity of technical knowledge, the Congress enacted Section 4110 of OPA and directed the Coast Guard to sort out the details on technical standards and use requirements for devices that would monitor tank pressures and/or cargo levels. These measures were supposed to have been put into effect by 1991.
