3/10/97
New rules would make oil barges safer
The proposals, submitted in Washington yesterday, are meant to prevent oil spills.
By PETER B. LORD
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer
All barges carrying petroleum must have anchors -- ones that actually work.
All such barges, in case they break free from the tugboats pulling them, must have devices that would allow them to be retrieved.
All tugs towing barges filled with petroleum must have two engines; a single-engined tug must have an escort tug.
All tug captains must immediately call the Coast Guard if their vessels lose power or suffer any damage that affects seaworthiness.
Those are some of the key new rules submitted in Washington yesterday by a special committee -- representing the environmental community, the state of Rhode Island, the Coast Guard and the barge industry -- to Rear Adm. James C. Card, assistant commandant of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety and Environmental Protection division.
The rules address many of the problems that contributed to the tug Scandia and the barge North Cape washing up on Moonstone Beach and spilling 800,000 gallons of oil nearly 14 months ago.
In that accident, a fire knocked out the Scandia's power and a fierce storm drove both vessels onto the beach. The crew was unable to release an anchor fastened to the North Cape's deck and by the time the tug captain called for help, it was too late. Also there were no retrieval devices that would have let rescue tugs get hold of the North Cape.
Representatives of the tug industry initially insisted there were no safety problems with tugs and barges.
But after a public outcry, and the passage of stringent new safety rules by the Rhode Island General Assembly, the Coast Guard and tug and barge industry leaders agreed last summer to form a task force that would consider new rules for the entire region.
The group met for about seven months and as recently as January, John Torgan, who represented Save the Bay and other environmental groups, was complaining that the group wasn't setting tough-enough rules.
But yesterday Torgan said more compromises were made and he was satisfied. The only provision the report doesn't call for that environmentalists still want is a speedup of the timetable for requiring double hulls on barges.
"We thought that double hulls were the toughest and best thing we could do to prevent spills," Torgan said. "But the Coast Guard and industry disagreed, saying it was unfeasible."
The industry argued that requiring double hulls would just move the oil business to tankers that don't have such a requirement, so nothing would be gained, Torgan said.
The rules, if adopted by the Coast Guard, would cover all barge traffic between New York and Maine. Torgan said he hoped they would go into effect by September.
"This analysis represents the best efforts of the Coast Guard, state governments, the environmental community and the tug and barge industry to jointly determine what practical steps can be taken to help prevent a scenario like the North Cape spill from ever happening again," said Coast Guard Capt. Eric Williams, chairman of the task force.
Stephen G. Morin, who represented the state Department of Environmental Management on the task force, said the rules "get us everything we would have gotten from the state legislation, and it won't put us by ourselves."
Morin and others were concerned that if Rhode Island had its own set of safety rules, the barge industry would simply boycott the state and go elsewhere. Now, with the proposed new Coast Guard rules, most of the measures called for in the state legislation will be adopted for the entire region.
State Sen. Charles J. Fogarty submitted legislation Thursday that rescinds last year's barge bill and replaces it with a bill drafted by DEM that basically reinforces the recommendations of the task force.
"The industry felt if they screamed loud enough on a national level people wouldn't do anything to them," Fogarty said. "But we felt if we showed them we were serious, there would be a more positive attitude. And it seems to have worked. We just want to make sure the state is protected."
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