The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup. The act requires, without regard to intent or negligence, any party responsible for the discharge or threatened discharge of oil in waters of the state to report the discharge immediately to the Office of Emergency Services. The act makes it a crime to fail to notify the office in violation of that requirement. The act requires the office, immediately upon receiving a report of discharge or threatened discharge, to notify specified state agencies, and the appropriate local governmental agencies in the
area surrounding the discharged oil, and to take specified actions.
This bill would require a potential casualty with a submerged oil pipeline, as described, to be treated as a threatened discharge of oil in waters of the state pursuant to the above-specified reporting provision of the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act. provision. The bill would require the operator of a vessel involved in a potential casualty with a submerged oil pipeline to immediately report the potential casualty to the office and would subject a vessel operator who fails to make that report to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $1,000,000 for each violation. The bill would require a court to consider specified factors in
determining the amount of the civil penalty to be assessed. The bill would authorize an action to be brought pursuant to these provisions by the Attorney General or by a district attorney, and would require 12 of the civil penalty collected to be deposited into the Oil Spill Response Trust Fund and 12 of the civil penalty collected to be deposited into the Environmental Enhancement Fund. By increasing moneys deposited into the Oil Spill Response Trust Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
office.
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The bill would require the office, upon receipt of the report, to provide the notice to specified state and local government agencies required by the act, and, using the information that the bill would require the State Lands Commission to provide to the office, notify the operator of
lessee of record for the pipeline lease in state waters for
the submerged pipeline about the potential casualty within 24 hours of receiving the report and to notify specified public agencies. report. The bill would require the office to additionally provide a copy of the notification provided to the lessee to the State Fire Marshal and to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, unless it was otherwise provided. The bill would require the office, on or before January 1, 2028, to provide to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature a report of the number of potential casualties reported to the office, as provided. The bill would require the office
administrator to coordinate with the United States Coast Guard and specified marine exchanges to designate the appropriate anchorages as proximate to chartered
charted pipelines in submerged oil pipeline zones zones, as defined,
and propose duly published designation of these anchorages by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This bill would subject a vessel operator who fails to report a potential casualty with a submerged pipeline to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $1,000,000 for each violation. The bill would require a court to consider specified factors in determining the amount of the civil penalty to be assessed. The bill would authorize an action to be brought pursuant to these provisions by the Attorney General or by a district attorney, and would require 1/2 of the civil penalty collected to be deposited into the Oil Spill Response Trust Fund and 1/2
of the civil penalty collected to be deposited into the Environmental Enhancement Fund. By increasing moneys deposited into the Oil Spill Response Trust Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.
This bill would provide that a violation of these provisions is not subject to certain enforcement provisions of the act.