43 U.S.C. § 1347 — Safety and health regulations
submitted 73 years ago by Pub. L. 95-372 to r/title-43-PUBLIC-LANDS · 587 words · no verdicts yet
The responsible Secretaries must study offshore safety rules and require the safest economically feasible technology where equipment failure could significantly affect safety, health, or the environment. The section also addresses hazardous-work rules, diving studies, coordination, and publication of safety regulations.
(a) Beginning upon September 18, 1978, the Secretary* and the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard operates, consulting each other and appropriate Federal agencies, must promptly study whether existing safety and health rules are adequate and what technology, equipment, and techniques are available for outer Continental Shelf* mineral exploration*, development*, and production*. They must send the results to the President, who must send Congress a plan of proposals to promote safety and health.
(b) For artificial islands, installations, and devices covered by section 1333(a)(1), the two Secretaries must require new drilling and production operations, and existing operations when practicable, to use the best available and safest economically feasible technologies when equipment failure could significantly affect safety, health, or the environment. The requirement does not apply when the Secretary finds the added benefits clearly do not justify the added costs.
(c) The Coast Guard Department Secretary must issue rules or standards for otherwise unregulated hazardous working conditions connected with outer Continental Shelf activities when necessary, and may later change interim or final rules about those conditions.
(d) This subchapter does not change the legal authority of the Secretary of Labor over occupational safety and health, the EPA Administrator over environmental protection, or the Secretary of Transportation over pipeline safety.
(e) The Commerce Secretary, working with the Coast Guard Department Secretary and the Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, must study underwater-diving techniques and equipment that protect people and improve diver performance. Studies must include decompression and excursion tables and all aspects of physiological limits and protective gear for hostile environments.
(f)(1) In administering this section, the Secretary must consult and coordinate with appropriate Federal agencies to avoid inconsistent or duplicate requirements as far as practicable. (2) The Secretary must make interested people a compilation of all Federal safety and other regulations that apply to outer Continental Shelf activities. The compilation must be revised and updated each year.
Upon September 18, 1978, the Secretary* and the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall, in consultation with each other and, as appropriate, with the heads of other Federal departments and agencies, promptly commence a joint study of the adequacy of existing safety and health regulations and of the technology, equipment, and techniques available for the exploration*, development*, and production* of the minerals* of the outer Continental Shelf*. The results of such study shall be submitted to the President who shall submit a plan to the Congress of his proposals to promote safety and health in the exploration, development, and production of the minerals of the outer Continental Shelf.
In exercising their respective responsibilities for the artificial islands, installations, and other devices referred to in section 1333(a)(1) of this title, the Secretary, and the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating, shall require, on all new drilling and production operations and, wherever practicable, on existing operations, the use of the best available and safest technologies which the Secretary determines to be economically feasible, wherever failure of equipment would have a significant effect on safety, health, or the environment, except where the Secretary determines that the incremental benefits are clearly insufficient to justify the incremental costs of utilizing such technologies.
The Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall promulgate regulations or standards applying to unregulated hazardous working conditions related to activities on the outer Continental Shelf when he determines such regulations or standards are necessary. The Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating may from time to time modify any regulations, interim or final, dealing with hazardous working conditions on the outer Continental Shelf.
Nothing in this subchapter shall affect the authority provided by law to the Secretary of Labor for the protection of occupational safety and health, the authority provided by law to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of the environment, or the authority provided by law to the Secretary of Transportation with respect to pipeline safety.
The Secretary of Commerce, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating, and the Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, shall conduct studies of underwater diving techniques and equipment suitable for protection of human safety and improvement of diver performance. Such studies shall include, but need not be limited to, decompression and excursion table development and improvement and all aspects of diver physiological restraints and protective gear for exposure to hostile environments.
In administering the provisions of this section, the Secretary shall consult and coordinate with the heads of other appropriate Federal departments and agencies for purposes of assuring that, to the maximum extent practicable, inconsistent or duplicative requirements are not imposed.
The Secretary shall make available to any interested person* a compilation of all safety and other regulations which are prepared and promulgated by any Federal department or agency and applicable to activities on the outer Continental Shelf. Such compilation shall be revised and updated annually.
Source credit: (Aug. 7, 1953, ch. 345, § 21, as added Pub. L. 95–372, title II, § 208, Sept. 18, 1978, 92 Stat. 654.)
- 1953Enacted · Pub. L. 95-372 · 92 Stat. 654
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 95-372 on 1953-08-07.
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