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01/20/97
PART TWO: Spill produces flurry of new barge, tug regulations
But some of the new rules are unenforceable, critics complain.
By ELIZABETH ABBOTT
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer
This is the second in a three-part series that looks back at Rhode Island's worst oil spill, one year later.
A year ago a tug left New York City for Rhode Island -- without being inspected and without the equipment it would need to put out an on-board fire -- pulling a barge that had no working anchor and no crew to drop one if they could have.
Forecast: A ferocious winter storm.
By now, most Rhode Islanders know the fate of that tug and barge, the Scandia and North Cape; the oil spill that occurred a year ago was the worst in Rhode Island's history.
More than 800,000 gallons of home heating oil spilled into Block Island Sound when the North Cape crashed onto Moonstone Beach, killing lobsters, loons and other wildlife, and disrupting the livelihoods of countless Rhode Islanders.
The spill opened a window on the powerful tug and barge industry; the view was disconcerting. Rhode Islanders learned that oil-filled barges ply the state's waters almost daily, yet the industry was largely unregulated at the time the North Cape went aground -- the result, critics say, of foot-dragging by the Coast Guard and a lobby that had convinced Congress that the industry could regulate itself.
Tugs did not even have to carry a compass at the time of the North Cape spill, let alone equipment that could have automatically put out the fire that consumed the Scandia, triggering the disaster.
Has anything changed in the past year? Did the politicians who vowed after the spill to crack down on the tug and barge industry make good on their promises? Or is the industry still calling the shots about how it conducts its business?
"A lot of progress has been made," said Capt. Barney Turlo, who supervised the Coast Guard's effort during the North Cape oil spill.
Indeed, as is usually the case in the wake of a disaster, there was a flurry of activity in the past year aimed at improving the safety of the tug and barge industry. The initiatives included the following:
At the behest of Sen. John Chafee, Congress passed a law that sets deadlines for the Coast Guard to require firefighting equipment on tugs and either the manning of single-hull barges, like the North Cape, or some other method to secure umanned barges when they break loose from a tug.
The Coast Guard imposed two new regulations on the tug and barge industry, one requiring tugs to carry basic safety and navigational equipment, the other addressing the operation of single-hull barges.
The Coast Guard launched a voluntary inspection program for tugboats, most of which now do not, by law, have to be inspected.
A regional group was formed to study the tug and barge industry and propose ways to make it safer.
The American Waterways Operators, a Virginia-based trade group, continued a safety program it began before the North Cape disaster, which sets higher standards for training, equipment and many other areas of tug and barge operation than the law requires.
"They've taken some initiative and we applaud them," said Nina Sankovitch, a lawyer who works with the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
THE TUG AND BARGE industry has not always been as cooperative as it has been in the past year, many noted.
The problem, said Sankovitch and other environmentalists, is that many of the measures that have either been adopted or are being discussed rely on voluntary compliance from the industry.
"There still is a resistance to putting anything in enforceable form," Sankovitch said.
Another problem with some of the new regulations is that they are just plain lame, critics say. One new Coast Guard regulation, for instance, requires tugs to carry the kind of basic safety and navigational equipment one would hope to find on any boat. Among the items: a compass and a chart.
The other Coast Guard regulation passed in the last year, concerning the operation of single-hull barges, is incomprehensible to a layperson. Asked what it requires, Capt. Eric Williams of the Coast Guard's Marine Safety office in Boston said it basically tells the owners of tug and barge companies to issue written "guidance" to tug and barge crews about such problems as fatigue.
The regulation says nothing about manning barges, a safety issue highlighted by the North Cape disaster.
"It is nothing," Sankovitch said.
By far the toughest action in the last year came from the General Assembly. In the summer, it passed a law that requires barges entering Rhode Island waters to be manned and have operable anchors.
The law also mandates that barges have double-hull construction -- considered the best defense against oil spills -- or be accompanied by an additional escort tug when visibility is poor. In addition, it requires that all barges be double-hull by 2001 -- several years earlier than federal law requires -- or have an escort tug in all kinds of weather.
Only a handful of states have spill-prevention laws as strict.
"We put this state in a leadership position to be more safe and I'm proud of it," said Dennis W. Nixon, director of the University of Rhode Island's graduate program in marine affairs, who lobbied for the bill.
Nixon gave the General Assembly and Governor Almond credit for not backing down in the face of fierce resistance to the bill from the tug and barge industry. A phalanx of industry representatives descended on the State House last spring, urging lawmakers not to adopt "knee-jerk" legislation.
But now the fate of that law, which is scheduled to go into effect June 1, is unclear.
Convinced that the tug and barge industry can't comply with the legislation for financial reasons, and fearful that the industry will boycott Rhode Island as a result, the state Department of Environmental Management wants the General Assembly to significantly amend the bill before it takes effect.
If tugs and barges can't come here because the state's laws are too strict, Rhode Islanders will lose their supply of home heating oil, DEM's Stephen G. Morin warned.
Several provisions of the new legislation are impractical, Morin said. Case in point: The requirement that barges with single hulls have escort tugs.
"The problem with that is there are just simply not enough tugboats," Morin said.
Another flawed provision is the one that requires all barges to have double-hulls by 2001 or always have an escort tug. Morin called that deadline impossible for the industry to meet.
DEM WANTS the law to reflect the recommendations of the regional group that has been studying ways to improve safety in the tug and barge industry.
Formed in June, the Regional Risk Assessment Team includes representatives of the tug and barge industry, the Coast Guard, environmental groups such as Save the Bay, and four state environmental agencies, including DEM.
The team's goal was to come up with regulations that would apply to the entire Northeast, not just Rhode Island. Such a regional approach to regulation is preferable to a patchwork of different state laws, most people believe.
"Without some symmetry, it is impossible to operate, absolutely impossible," said Linda O'Leary, vice president of the American Waterways Operators, a Virginia-based industry trade group.
On most trips, tugs and barges pass through several different states. It would be technically, operationally and financially impossible to comply with a different set of laws for each state, O'Leary said.
"If you can't comply with Rhode Island law, how can you leave New York with a fully-laden tank barge?" O'Leary said.
DEM's Morin said the team's recommendations, due out at the end of the month, are "functionally equivalent" to the protections provided by the state law with two added benefits: They won't threaten the state's economy and they have the endorsement of the industry.
But seven environmental groups, including Save the Bay, disagree. They say the recommendations dilute the state law and should not be used to either amend or scrap the legislation.
Save the Bay's John B. Torgan called DEM's position "irresponsible," and he accused the agency of kowtowing to the tug and barge industry.
"The DEM's job should be to protect Rhode Island and Narragansett Bay. It is incomprehensible to Save the Bay that they would side with industry," Torgan said.
On the surface, at least, there appear to be significant differences between what the state's new law requires and what is being recommended by the assessment team, according to a draft summary of the group's recommendations.
The law requires all barges to be manned. The team says all barges being pushed by a tug or positioned alongside a tug should be considered "manned" if there is a barge captain and barge crewman on the tug, in addition to the tug crew.
The law requires that all barges coming into Rhode Island waters have double hulls by 2001 or have an escort tug. The assessment team opposes this provision because it "may disrupt the existing petroleum transportation and distribution in New England."
Yes, there are differences between the state law and the team's recommendations, but DEM believes the recommendations will provide even greater protection for the environment because they're more comprehensive, DEM Director Timothy R.E. Keeney said.
The team has proposed creating a special navigation area for the entire Northeast, thereby addressing the industry's concern that it not be regulated a piecemeal. Inside this area, a host of new regulations would apply, such as requiring barges to have operable anchor systems and an extra emergency tow line.
But Keeney stressed that the recommendations must become enforceable Coast Guard regulations. Until that happens, Rhode Island's new law should stay on the books as a reminder to the tug and barge industry that the state is serious about protecting its resources, Keeney said.
THE GAME PLAN all along was for the General Assemby to review the assessment team's recomendations with an eye toward revising the oil spill legislation, said state Sen. Charles J. Fogarty, one of the bill's primary sponsors.
The law doesn't take effect until June 1 precisely for that purpose, he said.
"Our ultimate goal is a regional appoach but we wanted some protection for Rhode Island in the meantime," Fogarty said.
If the law eventually gets scrapped, it will have already served a purpose, many observers said. When the law was passed, the industry saw how serious Rhode Island was about improving safety and has since become more cooperative.
"We got the ball rolling," Fogarty said.
Everyone agrees there is no single solution to the complex problem presented by the North Cape oil spill. If in response to Rhode Island's disaster the Coast Guard required that all barges be manned, the next accident could highlight the dangers of manning barges, Captain Turlo said.
In other words, one solution often begets another set of problems.
But Turlo is optimistic that a safer marine environment can be achieved. He points to the assessment team's regional approach and a more cooperative attitude on the part of the tug and barge industry as positive developments of the past year.
"If the North Cape hadn't happened, we'd be that much further behind," he said.
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