33 U.S.C. § 2732 — Terminal and tanker oversight and monitoring

(a) Short title and findings. (1) Short title. This section may be called the Oil Terminal and Oil Tanker Environmental Oversight and Monitoring Act of 1990. (2) Findings. Congress finds that: (A) On March 24, 1989, the fully loaded tanker EXXON VALDEZ grounded and broke open, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil in environmentally sensitive Prince William Sound. (B) Many people believe that complacency by industry and government personnel responsible for monitoring the Valdez terminal and vessel traffic in Prince William Sound helped cause the spill. (C) Involving local citizens in preparing, adopting, and revising oil-spill contingency plans is one way to fight that complacency. (D) A mechanism should create a long-term partnership among industry, government, and local communities to oversee compliance with environmental concerns in operating crude-oil terminals. (E) Such a mechanism exists at the Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands, which should be a model for others. (F) Because of its effective partnership, Sullom Voe is considered Europe’s safest terminal. (G) The United States system for regulating and overseeing crude-oil terminals has become a process of continuing mistrust and confrontation. (H) Trust needed to change confrontation into agreement will develop only when local citizens participate. (I) Alaska should have a pilot program based on Sullom Voe to further develop these concepts and relationships. (J) Similar programs should eventually be established at other major United States crude-oil terminals because recent spills in Texas, Delaware, and Rhode Island show that safely transporting crude oil is a national problem. (b) Demonstration programs. (1) Establishment. Two Oil Terminal and Oil Tanker Environmental Oversight and Monitoring Demonstration Programs (the Programs) are established in Alaska. (2) Advisory function. The Programs may provide advice only. (3) Purpose. The Prince William Sound Program monitors the environment at terminal facilities in Prince William Sound and the crude-oil tankers operating there. The Cook Inlet Program monitors the environment at terminal facilities and aboard crude-oil tankers operating in Cook Inlet south of the latitude of Point Possession and north of the latitude of Amatuli Island, including offshore facilities in Cook Inlet. (4) Suits barred. A program, association, council, committee, or other organization created by this section may not sue a person or entity, public or private, about a matter arising under this section, except to enforce a contract. (c) Oil Terminal Facilities and Oil Tanker Operations Association. (1) Establishment. One such Association is established for each Program. (2) Membership. Each Association has four people: (A) one designated by terminal-facility owners and operators to represent them; (B) one designated by owners and operators of tankers calling at the facilities to represent them; (C) one Alaska state employee designated by the Governor to represent the State; and (D) one Federal Government employee designated by the President to represent the Federal Government. (3) Responsibilities. Each Association reviews policies about operating and maintaining terminal facilities and crude-oil tankers that affect or may affect the environment near its terminals. It provides a forum for facility owners and operators, tanker owners and operators, the United States, and Alaska to discuss and recommend action on all permits, plans, and site-specific regulations governing terminal-facility activities that affect or may affect that environment, and on tankers calling at those facilities. (4) Designation of existing organization. The Secretary may designate an existing nonprofit organization as an Association if it is organized for this section’s purposes and has at least the four kinds of members listed in paragraph (2). (d) Regional Citizens’ Advisory Councils. (1) Membership. One Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council is established for each Program. (2) Membership. Each Council has voting and nonvoting members. (A) Voting members. Voting members must live in Alaska. Except for clause (vii), the Governor appoints them from nominees supplied by each listed interest, appointing one representative for each interest and considering regional balance: (i) local commercial fishing organizations whose members depend on nearby fishery resources; (ii) nearby aquaculture associations; (iii) Alaska Native Corporations and other Alaska Native organizations whose members live nearby; (iv) environmental organizations whose members live nearby; (v) recreational organizations whose members live in or use the area; (vi) the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, representing the local tourist industry; and (vii) municipalities choose the representatives as follows: (I) for Prince William Sound, Cordova, Whittier, Seward, Valdez, Kodiak, Kodiak Island Borough, and Kenai Peninsula Borough each choose one; (II) for Cook Inlet, Homer, Seldovia, Anchorage, Kenai, Kodiak, Kodiak Island Borough, and Kenai Peninsula Borough each choose one. (B) Nonvoting members. An ex-officio, nonvoting representative is designated by and represents each of: (i) the Environmental Protection Agency; (ii) the Coast Guard; (iii) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; (iv) the United States Forest Service; (v) the Bureau of Land Management; (vi) the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation; (vii) the Alaska Department of Fish and Game; (viii) the Alaska Department of Natural Resources; and (ix) the Division of Emergency Services, Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. (3) Terms. (A) Duration. The Councils continue for the life of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System’s operation and for as long as oil is transported to or from Cook Inlet. (B) Three years. Voting members serve three-year terms, except under subparagraph (C). (C) Initial appointments. For the Governor’s first appointments, one-third serve three years, one-third two years, and one-third one year. For the municipal representatives required by (d)(2)(A)(vii), drawing lots determines that one-third serve three years, one-third two years, and the rest one year. (4) Self-governing. Each Council elects its chair, chooses its staff, and sets its internal operating policies. After the Secretary calls the initial organizational meeting under subsection (i), each Council governs itself. (5) Dual membership and conflicts of interest prohibited. (A) A Council member may not serve on the Association. (B) A voting Council member may not engage in an activity that might conflict with performing the member’s Council duties. (6) Duties. Each Council must: (A) advise and recommend to the Association about policies, permits, and site-specific rules for operating and maintaining terminal facilities and crude-oil tankers that affect or may affect the nearby environment; (B) use the committee under (e) to monitor environmental effects of terminal facilities and tanker operations; (C) monitor parts of facility and tanker operation and maintenance that affect or may affect that environment; (D) use the committee under (f) to review whether oil-spill prevention and contingency plans are adequate for facilities and for tankers operating in Prince William Sound or Cook Inlet; (E) advise and recommend about port operations, policies, and practices; (F) recommend to the Association: (i) permit standards and conditions and site-specific rules intended to reduce impacts near the facilities; (ii) facility operating and maintenance changes intended to reduce risk, lessen impacts, and reduce oil-spill risk; (iii) tanker operating and maintenance changes in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet intended to reduce spill risk and impacts; and (iv) changes to facility and tanker spill-prevention and contingency plans in those areas intended to improve prevention and response; and (G) create needed additional committees, including a scientific and technical advisory committee for the Prince William Sound Council. (7) No estoppel. A Council is not liable under State or Federal law for costs or damages resulting from giving advice under this section. Advice from a voting Council member, program representative, or agent may not stop the represented interests from seeking damages or other appropriate relief. (8) Scientific work. Each Council may conduct its own scientific research while doing research, development, and monitoring. It must review scientific work that terminal or tanker operators undertake, or have undertaken for them, because a law requires it. It must also review relevant scientific work done by or for a government entity about the facilities or tankers. So far as possible, each Council must coordinate its independent work with work done by or for terminal operators and tanker operators to avoid needless duplication. (e) Committee for Terminal and Oil Tanker Operations and Environmental Monitoring. (1) Monitoring Committee. Each Council must establish a permanent Monitoring Committee to design and manage a comprehensive program monitoring environmental effects of terminal facilities and crude-oil tankers while they operate in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. Council members, citizens, and recognized scientific experts chosen by the Council serve on it. (2) Duties. The Monitoring Committee must: (A) advise on a monitoring strategy that can detect environmental effects early; (B) develop monitoring programs and recommend how to carry them out; (C) when it chooses, select and contract with universities and other scientific institutions for specific projects authorized by the Council under an approved strategy; (D) perform other tasks the Council assigns; and (E) give the Council written reports interpreting and assessing all monitoring results. (f) Committee for Oil Spill Prevention, Safety, and Emergency Response. (1) Technical Oil Spill Committee. Each Council must establish a permanent Oil Spill Committee to review and assess measures to prevent spills and plans and readiness for responding to, containing, cleaning up, and reducing spill effects. Council members, citizens, and recognized technical experts chosen by the Council serve on it. (2) Duties. It must: (A) periodically review facility and tanker spill plans in light of new technology and changed circumstances; (B) monitor periodic drills and tests of those plans; (C) study wind, water currents, and other nearby environmental factors that may affect prevention, response, containment, or cleanup; (D) identify highly sensitive areas that may need special protection in a spill; (E) monitor spill-prevention, containment, response, and cleanup technology; (F) periodically review port organization and operations, incidents, and the adequacy and maintenance of vessel-traffic-service systems intended to ensure safe tanker transit; (G) periodically review standards for tankers bound for, loading at, leaving, or otherwise using the facilities; (H) perform other Council-assigned tasks; and (I) give the Council written findings and recommendations. (g) Agency cooperation. After the 180-day period following August 18, 1990, each Federal department, agency, or other Federal instrumentality must consult the appropriate Council before taking substantive action on a permit, site-specific rule, or other matter governing terminal-facility activities that affect or may affect the nearby area. The purpose is to let the Association and Council review the matter and recommend operations, policies, or agency actions. Consultation is not required if an authorized Federal representative reasonably believes an emergency requires immediate action. (h) Recommendations of Council. If the Association rejects or significantly changes a Council recommendation before adopting it, the Association must, within five days after deciding, give the Council written notice and written reasons. (i) Administrative actions. Appointments, designations, and selections of Association and Council members must be submitted to the Secretary before the 120-day period after August 18, 1990, ends. By the end of the 180-day period, the Secretary must call each Association’s and Council’s first organizational meeting. (j) Location and compensation. (1) Location. Each Association and Council must be located in Alaska. (2) Compensation. Members receive no pay for Association or Council service. They may receive travel expenses, including per diem instead of subsistence, at rates set by the Association or Council and no higher than the rates authorized for agency employees under 5 U.S.C. §§ 5702 and 5703. A Council may contract to pay expenses and compensation to members of committees created under (d), (e), and (f). (k) Funding. (1) Requirement. Approval of required contingency plans for owners and operators of Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound facilities and tankers operating in Alaskan waters in commerce with those facilities remains effective only while the applicable Association and Council are funded under paragraph (2). (2) Prince William Sound Program. Owners or operators of terminal facilities or tankers operating in Prince William Sound must provide each year a combined amount of no more than $2,000,000, as the Secretary determines. The amount (A) must establish and operate the Prince William Sound environmental oversight and monitoring program; (B) must be adjusted each year by the Anchorage Consumer Price Index; and (C) may be periodically adjusted by mutual agreement of the owners or operators and the Prince William Sound Council. (3) Cook Inlet Program. Owners or operators of terminal facilities, offshore facilities, or tankers operating in Cook Inlet must provide each year a combined amount of at least $1,400,000, as the Secretary determines. The amount (A) must establish and operate the Cook Inlet environmental oversight and monitoring program; (B) must be adjusted each year by that Index; and (C) may be periodically adjusted by mutual agreement of the owners or operators and the Cook Inlet Council. (l) Reports. (1) Associations and Councils. Before the 36-month period after August 18, 1990, ends, each Association and Council must report its activities and recommendations to the President and Congress. (2) GAO. Before that period ends, the Government Accountability Office must report to the President and Congress on how entities carrying out the Programs handled funds, including donated funds, and on the effectiveness of the demonstration programs, with recommendations. (m) Definitions. (1) “Terminal facilities” means: (A) for Prince William Sound, the entire oil-terminal complex in Valdez, Alaska, about 1,000 acres, including all buildings, docks except City of Valdez docks not used to load crude oil, pipes, piping, roads, ponds, tanks, tankers only while at the terminal dock, tanker escorts owned or operated by the terminal operator, vehicles, and other facilities associated with and necessary to help move crude oil by tanker into and out of the complex; and (B) for Cook Inlet, the entire oil-terminal complex, including buildings, docks, pipes, piping, roads, ponds, tanks, vessels, vehicles, tankers only while at the terminal dock, tanker escorts and emergency spill-response vessels owned or operated by the terminal operator, and other associated facilities necessary to help move crude oil by tanker into and out of the complex. (2) “Crude oil tanker” means a tanker (a term this section does not define, but that section 2101 of title 46 defines) that: (A) for Prince William Sound, calls at the facilities to receive and carry oil to refineries, operates north of Middleston Island, and is bound for or leaving Prince William Sound; and (B) for Cook Inlet, calls at the facilities to receive and carry oil to refineries and operates in Cook Inlet and the Gulf of Alaska north of Amatuli Island, including tankers traveling to Cook Inlet from Prince William Sound. (3) “Vicinity of the terminal facilities” means the geographic area surrounding the facilities’ environment that is directly affected or may be directly affected by facility operations. (4) “Secretary” means the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard operates. (n) Savings clause. (1) Regulatory authority. Nothing here changes, repeals, replaces, or overrides any municipal, State, or Federal law or regulation. It does not affect oil-spill litigation or the United States’, Alaska’s, or its municipalities’ rights and duties to protect the environment by regulating land, air, and water uses, safety, and related development. Monitoring under this section must help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and may cover only activities (A) that affect or could affect the area near the facilities and the included tanker-operation area, and (B) that are subject to United States, Alaska, or municipal law, regulation, or another legal requirement. (2) Recommendations. This subsection does not stop an Association or Council from recommending that authorities change existing legal requirements or adopt new ones. (o) Alternative voluntary advisory group in lieu of Council. The requirements of (c) through (l), as they apply to each Program, are considered satisfied if these conditions are met: (1) Prince William Sound. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company or one of its owner companies contracts for the duration of Trans-Alaska Pipeline System operations with the Alyeska Citizens Advisory Committee that existed on August 18, 1990, or a successor, to fund it each year in the amount provided in (k)(2)(A), and the President annually certifies that it advances this section’s general goals and purposes and broadly represents communities and interests near the facilities and in Prince William Sound. (2) Cook Inlet. Owners and operators of the terminal facilities, offshore facilities, or crude-oil tankers contract with a voluntary advisory organization to fund it each year, and the President annually certifies that it advances this section’s general goals and purposes and broadly represents communities and interests near the facilities and in Cook Inlet.