Page 60: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1998)

SHALLOW DRAFT REPORT deserving of the best and most timely response in the event of a spill.

To eliminate this disturbing trend and ensure that the objec- tives of OPA 90 are met, AWO advocates that OPA 90 be reaf- firmed as the exclusive statute for criminal prosecution for oil pollu- tion.

This would ensure the increased cooperation and responsiveness essential to a timely and effective spill response, while not diluting the deterrent effect and stringent criminal penalties imposed by OPA 90 itself.

State Activism

Another troubling trend affecting the barge and towing industry is the increasing willingness of state governments, from Washington to

Wisconsin to Rhode Island, to go beyond their traditional jurisdic- tional boundaries and attempt to regulate the design and operation of vessels in interstate commerce.

Clearly, minimizing the incentive for states to regulate the industry is the place to start — by giving state legislators and agency offi- cials confidence that the combina- tion of an effective federal regula- tory floor, with industry standards that supplement that floor, protect their waters, their shorelines, and their citizens' livelihoods. Usually, states enter into maritime regula- tion on the heels of a marine acci- dent. The industry recognizes that minimizing, or preferably elimi- nating, accidents and spills is by far the best way to minimize state efforts to regulate the industry's operations.

But invariably, when something does go wrong, and sometimes even when it doesn't, politics dic- tate that state officials will look to do for themselves what they don't see industry and the federal gov- ernment doing for them. When that happens, both the USCG and the maritime industry need to take a strong stand in defense of federal jurisdiction.

AWO believes strongly that nei- ther the marine industry's inter- ests nor the nation's are served by a patchwork of differing laws and regulations imposed by states that do not have the means to enforce them and often lack a basic under- standing of the industry's opera- tions. AWO will continue to work to provide assurance to would-be state regulators that when they have identified a legitimate safety

June, 1998 issue, the industry will work to solve the problem, either through federal regulation, industry self- regulation, or a combination of the two.

Increasing safety and environ- mental protection in the maritime industry is of paramount impor- tance to AWO and its members.

However, not every governmental attempt to promote improvement has proven helpful to that objec- tive. The trend toward strict crimi- nal prosecution of companies and their employees and regulation on a state-by-state basis produce seri- ous side-effects that jeopardize the positive results we all seek to achieve. AWO believes an ade- quate federal regulatory floor, sup- plemented by industry-specific standards, will result in safe, high quality, reliable service for every- one dependent on this important mode of transportation.

The preceding was provided com- pliments of the AWO. 4

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