Federal Oversight News

As part of a continued effort to invest in Boston-area water transportation, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) recently welcomed a new high-speed catamaran ferry, Champion to its fleet with support from STV, a leading engineering, architectural, planning, and construction management firm. Champion is the first new passenger ferry vessel procured by the MBTA. It was also the first new water-borne vessel procurement supported by STV, which has a long-standing history of providing procurement support services for rail and bus vehicles to the MBTA and other transportation agencies throughout North America. The new ferry will provide service between Hingham, Hull, Logan Airport and downtown Boston.

The $50 million Guam Commercial Port Improvement Project, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) on behalf of the Department of Defense (DOD), has been completed, transforming Guam’s strategic commercial sea port into a world-class facility ready to meet the demands of the future, MARAD announced today. “As Guam’s only commercial port, these facilities are key to unlocking a more prosperous future for the people of the territory – and the whole of the Western Pacific Region,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. U.S.

Shell’s drilling operations in the Chukchi Sea are being overseen 24/7 by inspectors from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to ensure compliance with federal regulations and safety standards, BSEE said. BSEE said its inspector boarded the semi-submersible drilling unit Transocean Polar Pioneer before it began drilling the top section of the well at Burger J on July 30, and a second BSEE inspector is on board the drillship Noble Discoverer at Burger V, even though the Discoverer is not permitted to conduct drilling operations while the Polar Pioneer is operating.

This is a synopsis from the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) report and does not include the Board’s rationale for the conclusions, probable cause, and safety recommendations. NTSB staff is currently making final revisions to the report from which the attached conclusions and safety recommendations have been extracted. The final report and pertinent safety recommendation letters will be distributed to recommendation recipients as soon as possible. to further review and editing. Houston Ship Channel, Lower Galveston Bay, Texas. The visibility was restricted at the time due to fog. The bulk carrier was inbound to Houston, traveling in a north direction. The tow was bound for Port Bolivar on the east side of the Houston Ship Channel, traveling in an east direction.

U.S. In response to the findings of investigations into the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, and following a thorough evaluation of recommendations from industry groups, equipment manufacturers, federal agencies, academia and environmental organizations, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced proposed regulations to better protect human lives and the environment from oil spills. The measures include more stringent design requirements and operational procedures for critical well control equipment used in offshore oil and gas operations.

Following its usual summer break over August 2014, Congress came back from its five-week summer recess and spent a whopping eight days or so back in session before recessing once again, approximately a week early, to hit the campaign trail for the November elections. This essentially means that including the summer recess, Congress will have been in session for a total of about eight days between the end of July and the middle of November 2014. No wonder why Congress has not been able to accomplish much this year, to date.

The history of marine safety is soaked in water and written in blood. “I think that most people will tell you that changes in marine safety are almost exclusively disaster-driven,” agrees Dr. Josh Smith, a professor at Kings Point and interim director of the American Merchant Marine Museum. It hasn’t always been that way. Actually, it’s been worse. Despite some efforts early on to exert some control over shipping practices, going to sea has been accepted as a risky undertaking as long as man has floated vessels.

Secretary Jewell Names Former USCG Vice Admiral Brian Salerno  Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today named former Vice Admiral Brian Salerno as the Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which provides federal oversight for oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf. Salerno, who retired from the U.S. Coast Guard last year as its Deputy Commandant for Operations, will assume his new position on August 26.

It has been more than 16 months since the Deepwater Horizon incident on April 20, 2010 which resulted in the deaths of 11 and injuries to 17 men working on the platform and the discharge of approximately five million barrels of oil. The well was finally capped on July 15, 2010 yet the Joint Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Investigation final report (Joint Investigation) has not been completed and released to the public. In addition, Congress continues to wait until the final results are released to make its own assessment of what legislation should ultimately be enacted and the complex litigation will be with us for years.

U.S. Maritime Administrator David T. Matsuda and Navy Rear Admiral Paul J. Bushong presented a $50m Defense Department check to Guam Acting Governor Michael W. Cruz, MD as federal and U.S. Territory officials joined at the Jose D. Leon Guerrero Commercial Port to officially break ground on the new Port of Guam Modernization Project. “The rebirth of this vital shipping port is long overdue,” said Administrator Matsuda. The seaport is a vital asset to the economy of Guam and to the national security of the United States. The port’s facilities have remained largely unchanged since its creation in the late 1960s. Old facilities and outdated equipment hinder the port’s overall capability and pose serious obstacles to efficient cargo operations.

According to a June 16 report from the New York Times, President Obama has named a Washington lawyer with a reputation for fixing broken government agencies, to overhaul federal oversight of offshore drilling. Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and inspector general for the Justice Department who is now a partner in the Washington office of a New York law firm, will head up efforts to restructure the former Minerals Management Service. Some have complained that Bromwich has little or no background with energy or environmental issues, according to the report. (Source: The New York Times)

Dennis L. Bryant, Senior Maritime Counsel at the law firm of Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C., is a contributing editor of MR/EN. The first foreign terrorist attack inside the United States was not the aviation-based assault of September 11, 2001. Eighty-five years earlier, foreign terrorists attacked a vital marine port facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Lest we forget. Port security was first formally recognized as a national priority, and a Coast Guard mission, during the World War I era. Early on the morning of July 30, 1916, a tremendous series of explosions ripped through the waterfront at Black Tom Island in Jersey City, New Jersey. Even though Europe had been at war for almost two years, peace still reigned in the United States. Although officially neutral, U.S.