Continued from page 4 Improvements were made in the oil spill response mechanism in the field. The Coast Guard has primary federal responsibility for oil spill response in coastal areas. The agency provides predesignated on-scene coordinators and maintains manned facilities that can be used to oversee spills. In addition, the Coast Guard has created a third strike team. Now there is a strike team on each coast, which will be able to airlift pollution response experts and clean-up equipment to spill sites in order to assist on-scene coordinators. Directed by the National Strike Force Coordination Center in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the strike teams are located in San Francisco, California; Mobile, Alabama; and Fort Dix, New Jersey. District response groups, consisting of Coast Guard personnel, vessels and equipment, have been established at each of the 10 Coast Guard districts. These groups have been formed to identify the pollution response capabilities available in each district. While it is critical to have immediate response capability in event of a spill, it is just as essential to have response equipment placed where it will most likely be needed. The Coast Guard has identified 19 sites within the United States to store equipment. Although the primary clean-up responsibility rests with the spiller, this prepositioned equipment will be available for rapid deployment. This quick response capability is critically important, because early prevention in a spill can significantly restrict the area eventually damaged. Prevention is more important than response. To make best use of both, and to consider compensation and restoration, contingency planning is called for and will become a major regulatory requirement. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Coast Guard co-chair monthly meetings of the National Response Team to draft a revised national contingency plan. The National Response Team is an interagency group with representatives from 15 federal agencies. Its primary function is setting and maintaining national response policy -- it does not direct spill responses. The team also supports regional response teams, who come from the same federal agencies as well as from state agencies. These regional teams are planning groups who support on-scene coordinators. Domestic activities One of the major tasks facing the Coast Guard is developing the regulations necessary to carry out OPA 90. For example, to reduce the risk of oil spills, new tankers and those undergoing major conversions must be fitted with double hulls. Existing single-hull tankers must be retPom pom boom is deployed to collect free floating surface oil. rofitted to remain in service, and all tankers must have double hulls by 2015. However, the act does not specify the design criteria that constitutes a double hull. Such details will be covered by rulemaking and industry consensus standards. The American Society of Testing and Materials formed a task group to develop a standard for double hulls. This standard could be the foundation for a similar international criterion. The Coast Guard will provide general standards, while the society will provide the detailed standards. The Coast Guard is also preparing rules concerning response plans for both vessels and facilities. This is important, because operators may not handle oil if they do not submit plans to the Coast Guard within six months after the rules are published. The act also requires rules to mandate tanker escorts in Prince William Sound, Rosario Strait and Puget Sound. Also in response to the act, the Coast Guard installed a lighthouse at Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound. The Coast Guard has conducted a study to determine the need for vessel traffic service systems, and is developing a national vessel traffic system plan. Published in three volumes and an overview, the study, "Port needs study," is available to the public only through the National Technical Information Service (telephone: 1-800-336-4700). The national vessel traffic system plan would simplify existing regulations by consolidating them into standard national traffic management and reporting procedures. In order to accomplish this, equipment improvements are needed. Related regulations will address the extended service area for vessel operators. One sensitive issue addressed by OPA 90, directly associated with the Exxon Valdez in the public mind, is drug and alcohol testing. The act affirms the Coast Guard position that drug testing is as essential to the safe operation of commercial vessels as it is to other modes of transportation. In addition, OPA 90 delegates the authority to the Coast Guard to immediately suspend a license, certificate or merchant mariner's document pending a hearing, if there is probable cause to believe the individual used alcohol or other dangerous drugs. Instructions to Coast Guard field units on this new authority are being prepared. The act directs the Coast Guard to "evaluate and test a program of remote alcohol testing for masters and pilots aboard tankers carrying significant quantities of oil." A study to accomplish this task is underway. A number of other rulemakings and studies are mandated by OPA 90. Many of the more important rules will be subjects of public hearings or workshops, which will allow interested parties a forum to express their views and offer suggestions. All rulemakings will be available for written comment. OPA 90 also requires cooperation among government agencies and establishes committees to involve local citizens' groups in planning and response activities. One requirement is for an interagency coordinating committee of 13 agencies, chaired by the Coast Guard, to pool their research and development resources. Atlantic strike team member inspects beach in Saudi Arabia after January 1991 oil spill. Continued on page 8 Continued from page 7 The goals are: improved spill prevention and response measures, solid response management, increased knowledge of oil's fate and effects, and optimal restoration and rehabilitation. The act authorizes limited funding for regional grant, demonstration, and research and development programs. International activities No anti-pollution effort of this magnitude can be effective without international cooperation. The United States is the major world market for oil, so few importers can afford to abandon it because of its stricter regulations. However, since so much of the tanker fleet is under foreign flags, the Coast Guard is working with IMO to minimize pollution of the world's oceans and rivers. IMO is the arm of the United Nations which establishes rules for worldwide vessel operation and construction. IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee produced a study confirming the middeck design as an acceptable alternative to double hulls. The United States is reserving its position on the mid-deck alternative. The IMO also approved a phase-out schedule for existing tankers -- at age 30, tankers must be scrapped or retrofitted to the new standards. Other OPA 90-related international considerations raised through IMO include: the role of human factors in pollution incidents, an international tanker casualty data collection system, the use of simulators in training of masters and mates, and the proper training and qualification of vessel traffic service operators. Congress recently ratified the International Convention on Standards for Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. The Coast Guard was an early supporter of this convention. Current United States merchant vessel personnel rules incorporate its basic requirements, and the Coast Guard will enforce them on foreign vessels when they call at United States ports. International cooperation with United States' efforts will not happen over night. Many foreign countries feel that portions of the unilateral United States' legislation does not coincide with their views. The challenge is great. Conclusions The Coast Guard is well aware of the long and arduous federal rulemaking process. In contrast, many states have been implementing legislation at a faster rate. The ideal would be to have OPA 90 in place and working as a touchstone for coordinated regulations. Nevertheless, the states have been most cooperative in their efforts to make their statutes as compatible as possible with OPA 90. It is anticipated that it will be several years before all OPA 90-related tasks are completed. To date, the Coast Guard has committed considerable resources to carry out the requirements. However, this will involve more than unilateral Coast Guard actions. Federal and state agencies must work together with industry, conservationists and the public to arrive at fair and effective regulatory requirements. The Coast Guard is mailing pertinent OPA 90 information as quickly as possible to more than 1,600 interested parties, including representatives of industry, environmental interests, maritime publishing, the legal community and the general public. (To get on OPA 90's mailing list, contact Mr. Gary Holliday (GMS-2), Coast Guard headquarters.) In the foreseeable future, we can expect permanent changes in the way the oil industry operates and is regulated, and the creation of new technologies to help prevent and respond to oil spills, along with ecological benefits for our oceans and rivers. Traditionally committed to marine safety and pollution prevention, the Coast Guard welcomes this bold new environmental initiative. Mr. Jim Bennardo is the assistant coordination and clearance manager with the Coast Guard's OPA 90 staff. Telephone: (202) 267-6410. Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia -- the largest shipyard in the world. OPA 90: By CAPT Warren G. Leback For several years, United States shipyards have been on the decline, with virtually no new commercial ship construction over 1,000 gross tons. For vessels trading in the United States, OPA 90 imposes double-hull requirements on new tank vessels, and directs the Coast Guard to develop modifications for existing tank vessels. United States shipyards Only one oceangoing commercial cargo ship (a 32,600 gross-ton container ship for Matson Navigation Co.) has been constructed in a United States shipyard in recent years. (The R. J. Pfeiffer was christened on February 15, 1992.) Previously, the last commercial ship weighing more than 1,000 gross tons was ordered in a United States shipyard in 1984. On September 4, 1991, the Marine Spill Response Corp., a not-for-profit group formed by the oil companies to respond to catastrophic oil spills, announced the purchase of sixteen 210foot offshore response vessels. The shipyards involved in the construction of the vessels are Halter Marine, Inc., in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Bender Shipbuilding and Repair in Mobile, Alabama. Three other ships are also under contract for construction in United States shipyards. For several years, shipyards in this country have been supported by government construction programs, mainly through the Department of Defense. It has been asserted that this reliance on government contracts provided little incentive for the shipyards to modernize and Continued on page 10 Continued from page 9 become commercially competitive with foreign shipyards. The Shipbuilders' Council of America, a national trade organization representing the principal private shipbuilders and repairers, and venders of marine equipment and services, has noted the distinction between military and commercial ship construction. Most military ships are one-of-a-kind, fully integrated, highly complex systems built to very detailed specifications. The payload, arms, is an integrated part of the ship, and interior spaces are small and highly specialized. Commercial ships, on the other hand, contain large open spaces for cargo. Tooling techniques to fabricate and weld the heavy steel plate used in commercial vessels differ greatly from those used in military construction. Reportedly, two reasons why United States shipyards do not successfully compete for commercial construction are higher labor and material costs, and less modern manufacturing facilities. Another major reason articulated is that European and Asian countries subsidize their shipbuilding industries, whereas the United States does not. For more than two years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international association of highly industrialized nations, has been negotiating to eliminate these subsidies to level the playing field for equitable competition. These negotiations, however, have not yet been successfully concluded. OPA 90 Enacted in response to casualties including the Exxon Valdez catastrophe, OPA 90 imposes construction and equipment requirements for tank vessels operating in United States waters. Principally, OPA 90 mandates double hulls for vessels for which a building contract was placed after June 30, 1990, and provides a schedule for phasing out existing single-hulled tank vessels greater than 5,000 gross tons by 2010. An exception is provided for vessels calling at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, a crude oil reception facility in the Gulf of Mexico, or offloading oil in an offshore lightering zone. These vessels must be phased out by 2015. Section 4115 of OPA 90 requires the Coast Guard to issue structural and operational requirements for existing tank vessels. The United States seeks the international shipping community to embrace double-hull tankers by proposing amendments to the Protocol of 1978 relating to the 1973 Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). Thus OPA 90 and MARPOL, if adopted, could generate an array of shipyard business opportunities. This was the hope of John J. Stocker, president of the Shipbuilders' Council of America. "...OPA 90 and Marpol, if adopted, could generate an array of shipyard business opportunities." Some construction activity has already occurred. CONOCO, Chevron and other companies are planning to build double-hull tankers, ordering from foreign shipyards before the enactment of OPA 90. As of October 1, 1991, two oil companies had solicited bids from United States shipyards to construct up to seven double-hull tankers. Whether this activity signals a new wave of construction due solely to OPA is open to question. Also, OPA 90 may generate the development of a fleet of commercial or not-for-profit, cleanup vessels. As noted earlier, the Marine Spill Response Corp. has already contracted for the construction of 16 specialized oil-spill response vessels. Other groups may refit existing offshore supply vessels or build new ones. The National Response Corp., a joint venture of Seacor, SCF-Olympic and Marine Pollution Control, has been formed and will offer response services to the industry with existing vessels. There may be opportunities for other organizations as well, especially when the Coast Guard develops rules requiring vessel response plans. Opportunity factors Many factors contribute to the idea that OPA 90 may not be the immediate boon to shipyards that had been hoped. They include OPA section 4115(f), which specifically contemplated the use of Maritime Administration. (MARAD) ship financing guarantees for OPA 90induced vessel construction and reconstruction, shipbuilding subsidies by foreign governments, and tanker demand projections. |