12.05.05

Cantwell Announces Comprehensive Oil Spill Prevention Legislation

Measure would enact vital environmental safeguards for Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined state officials and community leaders Sunday to announce her legislation to implement long sought after environmental safeguards to protect Puget Sound from future oil spills.

"The Puget Sound is at the heart of our economy, tourism, and quality of life," said Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over oil spill issues. "The consequences of a major spill in the Sound would be devastating to Washington businesses, consumers, fisheries, and families."

Cantwell’s bill, "The Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act," would reduce the risk of an oil spill in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca by improving tug escort procedures, requiring a permanent rescue tug in Neah Bay, and providing financial support for Washington’s newly formed Oil Spill Advisory Council. The legislation would also increases liability caps for parties responsible for an oil spill, require more comprehensive structural inspections of single-hull oil tankers, and initiate an analysis of oil transportation in the United States to determine if additional safeguards are needed.

"While we’ve thankfully avoided a major spill so far, we’ve still had over 80 significant spills in Washington state waters over the past two decades," said Cantwell. "We clearly must do more to further strengthen our oil spill prevention safety net."

Puget Sound is one of the world’s most complex and congested waterways, and the hundred nautical miles between Neah Bay and Cherry Point are often plagued with driving wind and rain that reduce visibility. Approximately 600 oil tankers and 3,000 oil barges travel through Puget Sound’s fragile ecosystem annually carrying about fifteen billion gallons of oil to Washington state’s five refineries. A March 2005 investigative report by the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that approximately 650 near-miss "incidents" occurred for all vessels (tank vessels carrying petroleum as well as non-tank cargo vessels), including traffic violations, collisions, and groundings in Puget Sound from 1985 to 2004.

To address the risks presented by oil transport, Cantwell has been working on comprehensive legislation to reduce and prevent spills since she became Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard in early 2005. The legislation she plans to introduce later this month when the Senate comes back into session grew out of a major field hearing held in Seattle last August, and responds to testimony from government officials, industry representatives, and other experts and stakeholders. Her bill also builds on the findings and recommendations of several significant reports by the U.S. Coast Guard, and strengthens the "The Oil Pollution Act of 1990," passed in the wake of Alaska’s devastating Exxon Valdez spill.

Earlier this year, Cantwell worked with U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) to renew and reinvigorate the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund in the Energy Bill. Without Congressional action, the Fund, which has been used to help clean up oil spills in the Puget Sound, would have run out of money by 2008. Key Components of Cantwell’s "Oil Pollution Prevention and Response Act:"

v Establishes a federal requirement for double tug escorts for all oil tankers over 5,000 gross tons operating in Puget Sound and Prince William Sound.

v Establishes a permanent rescue tug at Neah Bay near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and in other remote areas where the Coast Guard determines the risk of oil spills is great.

v Supports the Oil Spill Advisory Council by providing them with $1 million in funding annually.

v Increases liability caps for parties responsible for an oil spill. Current limits were adopted in 1990 and oil spill cleanup costs have far outpaced existing liability caps.

v Requires the Coast Guard to conduct more comprehensive structural inspections of single-hull oil tankers.

v Directs the Coast Guard to reduce the risks of oil spills from activities that are now largely ignored, such as spills resulting from oil transfers between vessels and land-based facilities.

v Requires the Coast Guard to improve coordination with federally-recognized tribes with respect to oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response.

v Requires the identification of natural resources of particular ecological or economic importance, such as fisheries, marine sanctuaries, and important estuaries. These areas would then be protected through routing and other navigational measures to reduce the risk of oil spills.

v Requires a comprehensive review of the safety of America’s oil transportation system, and directs the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with other agencies, to provide recommendations to improve existing safety measures.