Coast Guard: Oil Spills Continue Despite Waterfront Facility Inspection Program
Abstract
A waterfront facility consists of docks where vessels moor to receive or discharge their oil cargo and a system of pipes and valves that transport the oil between the dock and other areas of a petroleum facility, such as storage tanks. Generally, a waterfront facility is a small portion of a larger petroleum facility that processes or distributes petroleum products. There are approximately 4,130 waterfront facilities in the United States. The Water Quality Improvement Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-224) gave the President authority to prevent water pollution from oil. The President delegated authority for preventing water pollution from facilities involved in transportation, such as oil-loading docks for vessels, to DOT and from nontransportation facilities, such as oil storage tanks, to EPA. The Secretary of Transportation, in turn, delegated the Department's responsibility to the Coast Guard. For those petroleum facilities that receive or ship oil by vessel, EPA shares authority for water pollution prevention with the Coast Guard, as defined in a 1971 memorandum of understanding. The Coast Guard, having responsibility to regulate transportation aspects of a facility, established standards for equipment used by operators, such as the required minimum strength of pipes and hoses used to transfer oil. It also established operating procedures; for example, one operating requirement is that a qualified facility employee supervise the transfer of petroleum between the facility and the vessel.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- AD1167393
Entities
People
- J. D. Peach
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office