Lautenberg Beach, Ocean Bills Pass Key Senate Committee

WASHINGTON –– The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works (EPW) approved May 21 two bills introduced by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to improve the health and safety of our nation’s beaches, and protect the environment by encouraging the use of more double-hull tankers instead of single-hull tankers.
The first bill would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use stronger beach water quality testing and public notification standards to keep beachgoers informed about the safety of their beaches. The second bill would remove federal liability limits for those responsible for creating oil spills if they continue to use single-hull tankers after 2010.
“With the start of summer approaching, Americans expect our nation’s beaches to be clean and safe,” said Sen. Lautenberg, a member of the EPW Committee.
“We must protect New Jersey’s environment and economy from the threat of contaminated water or a major oil spill. These bills build on our efforts to protect our environment and give beachgoers the confidence they deserve.”
The first bill, the Beach Protection Act of 2008, requires the EPA to approve and use rapid testing methods that detect water contamination in two hours, so the public can be quickly notified of any health risks the water may pose. Current water quality monitoring tests take one or two days, during which time beachgoers can be exposed to harmful pathogens.
The bill also doubles from $30 million to $60 million the amount of grant money available annually to states through 2012, which will allow states to track the sources of pollution and work to prevent its impacts.
Lautenberg’s second bill would phase out all federal limitations on liability for polluters using single-hull tankers after 2010. Currently, federal laws cap clean up and damage costs for oil spills from single-hull tankers at a maximum of $3,000 per gross ton. Additional clean-up costs and damages are paid through a federal trust fund financed by a five-cent tax on each barrel of oil imported to the U.S.
While the U.S. has banned single-hull tankers after 2015, the International Maritime Organization—the global standards body for the maritime industry—has moved up the worldwide date to ban single-hull ships to 2010. This may force more single-hull ships to be operated in U.S. waters between 2010 and 2015. Lautenberg’s bill would encourage companies to operate double-hull tankers, thus reducing the risk of a major oil spill.
Since 1990, every major U.S. oil spill from a tanker or tank barge, including the Athos I oil spill in the Delaware River in 2004, was from a single-hull ship, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Sen. Lautenberg is a leader in beach protection and oil spill prevention. Last week, a different Senate committee approved a Lautenberg bill to require new ship fuel tank designs, strengthen medical review programs for merchant mariners and improve Coast Guard vessel tracking systems.
Lautenberg was an original cosponsor of the landmark Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and authored changes to the law in 2006 to require polluters to pay more of their spill damage costs if the spill involved a single-hulled ship rather than a double-hulled one. He also authored the original BEACH Act in 2000, which first established federal beach water quality monitoring programs.