14 U.S.C. § 335 — Environmental Compliance and Restoration Program

(a) Definitions. This section borrows key terms — "environment," "facility," "person," "release," "removal," "remedial," and "response" — from the federal Superfund law (CERCLA). It also borrows the term "hazardous substance" from that same law, but adds that "hazardous substance" also includes anything called "oil" under the Clean Water Act. And it borrows the term "pollutant" from the Clean Water Act too.

(b) Program. The Secretary^* must run a program to clean up and prevent environmental contamination at current and former Coast Guard facilities. The program's goals are to: (A) find, investigate, and clean up contamination from hazardous substances and pollutants; (B) fix other environmental damage that seriously threatens public health, welfare, or the environment; (C) tear down and remove unsafe buildings, including at former Coast Guard sites; and (D) prevent new contamination at current facilities.

The Secretary must respond to releases of hazardous substances or pollutants at every Coast Guard facility the U.S. owns, leases, or otherwise controls now, or owned in the past when the contamination happened, and on every vessel the Coast Guard owns or runs. This duty doesn't apply when a different responsible party is already handling the cleanup under the Superfund law's section 122. The Secretary must pay any state permit fee for disposing of hazardous substances or pollutants from Coast Guard sites, just as private companies must — except when a lessee, contractor, or other private party is responsible for that payment instead.

The Secretary may team up with other federal agencies, and may sign contracts, cooperative agreements, or grants with state and local governments, to help carry out this cleanup work — including cleaning up contamination that spread off-site from a Coast Guard facility. Contractors who carry out response actions under this section get the same protections as under Superfund section 119, and the Coast Guard must cover a contractor's reasonable long-term liability with indemnification if the contractor can't get affordable insurance for it.

(c) Amounts Recovered for Response Actions. Money Congress appropriates for this cleanup work is credited or transferred into a special Coast Guard account chosen by the Commandant^*, and stays available until spent. That account's money may be used for this section's cleanup work. When the President submits the federal budget each year, the request must separately list the amount asked for Coast Guard environmental cleanup work. And any money the Secretary recovers from responsible parties under Superfund section 107 goes into that same special account.

(d) Annual List of Projects to Congress. Each year, when the President submits the budget, the Commandant must also send Congress — specifically the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee — a ranked list of cleanup projects that qualify for funding that year.