环境法律: An Oil Spill Could Cost Your Business - March 2016

by 詹姆斯·T. 朗

的所有者 每一个容器, 每个船厂, 每个端口, and each waterfront facility that handles oil is faced with the risk of an oil spill into water. Ignoring the risk is foolhardy. It puts the business in jeopardy, along with the assets and even the personal freedom of the owner. Acknowledging the risk, 管理它, is an important business judgment that weighs the economic cost of the available prevention measures, the extent to which those measures, 如果采用, will reduce the risk of a spill occurring, and the economic cost of dealing with a spill after-the-fact.

我的最后一个专栏 described a relatively small oil spill (1,000 gallons) from the 75 foot TUGBOAT SUSAN ANN in local waters of Norfolk, 维吉尼亚州, 3月1日, 2010, 后, overturned while moored at a shipyard in the Elizabeth River. This spill triggered a relatively small economic cost of $50,000.00(估计).

民事 & 刑事责任

This cost would have grown if the authorities had taken full account of the shipyard owner’s record of previous civil and criminal prosecutions for environmental violations at the facility when arriving at the amount of the 民事处罚. 与 $7,361.00民用PEnalty actually imposed, a $100,000.00 民事处罚 was authorized by the 维吉尼亚州 Discharge of Oil into Waters Law (up to $100 per gallon of oil spilled, Va. 代码§62.1-44.34:20(C)(3)). A criminal prosecution, which was also available under the 维吉尼亚州 Discharge of Oil into Waters Law, could have been brought against the shipyard owner for his disregard of good maritime practice – he moored the tug in shallow water such that the vessel hit bottom at low tide, 上市, 和推翻, and he neglected to provide the stability of a pier, 系泊海豚，或者ny other type of mooring facility to safeguard the vessel. 弗吉尼亚法典第62条.1-44.34:20(E)(1) authorizes a 12 month jail sentence and $50,000.00 fine for “negligently” discharging oil. 的 shipyard owner’s failure to report the spill is a 可能的因素, in some jurisdictions, have weighed in favor of criminal prosecution when considered in the totality of the circumstances of this spill. It should also be noted that the federal Clean Water Act, at 33 U.S.C. §1321, provides an alternative set of civil and criminal penalties which could have been applied to the shipyard owner in lieu of enforcement by state authorities under the 维吉尼亚州 Discharge of Oil into Waters Law.    

清理成本

成本 of this spill likewise could have grown rapidly for any number of other factors mentioned in 我之前的专栏 (if "removal costs" were assessed, if "natural resource damages" were assessed, if damage to the real or personal property of the others had been assessed, or if profits lost due to injury to natural resources, real property or personal property had been assessed).

清理工作 requires people and equipment. For point of comparison, a nominal package consisting of 15 responders, 一艘船, 1,000英尺吊杆, 小型撇油器, and two vacuum trucks – probably enough to contain and clean up a small spill at a vessel docked pierside – requires a budget of $35,000.00 to $40,000.00 /天. In the late 1990’s personnel costs were $1,200 to $1,500 /天 per person. Industry sources now estimate this cost at $1,800 to $2,000 /天 per person. Quantity of oil spilled is one driver of cost. 然而,女士. Etkin的论文 "Estimating 清理成本 for Oil Spills," presented at the 1999 International Oil Spill Conference confirms that location of the spill and the type of oil spilled are more influential in driving cost, as compared to quantity of oil spilled. A more recent cost estimating model was furnished in 2013 by Montewka, Weckstrom and Kujala at Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.

的 published studies and conventional wisdom among industry sources are that the responsible party saves money by incurring the cost necessary to field a vigorous response in the early hours – some say it is wise to “over” respond in the early hours – to contain the spill, to keep the oil away from the shoreline or sensitive resources, recognizing that the effort can be scaled back later. Providing this vigorous early response may require personnel and equipment in quantities scaled up from the nominal package of personnel and equipment available at $35,000 to $40,000 /天, as described immediately above. CleanupOil.com publishes an industry-leading directory with contact information on more than 1,000 oil spill clean-up contractors, 在50多个国家, 在其 "Little Black Book of Oil Spill Contractors."

的 April 10, 2010 blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig led to an unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 的 explosion that accompanied the spill killed eleven people. 186 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf for months until the federal government officially deemed the oil well “dead” on September 19, 2010. Economic cost to the spiller is in excess of $53 billion.

Vulnerability to Class Action Lawsuits

费用是多少? of compensating persons for bodily injury caused by exposure to chemicals released in the spill and/or exposure to chemical substances released as part of the spill clean-up?

事实证明 in the Deepwater Horizon spill, exposure to oil and/or the dispersants applied to the spill as part of the clean-up can cause an array of acute and chronic health conditions affecting eyes, 皮肤, the upper airway and respiratory system, and the nerves and nervous system. Tens of thousands of persons brought litigation against the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig for such personal injuries; the litigation was in the form of a class action. 的 case settled prior to trial with the class members receiving financial compensation for their bodily injuries, medical monitoring for the next 21 years, and the ability to file suit later against the owner of the oil rig for after-developed medical conditions not present at the time of the settlement. See, In re Oil Spill, 295 F.R.D. 112 (E.D. La. 2013). 两周前, the same court held that these injured persons may not recover from persons working to clean up the spill. In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, case 2:10-md-02179 (E.D. La. 2月. 16, 2016) (document no. 15,853 in the court docket).

Small Spills Still Incur Big Costs

Even a relatively small spill, 比如1,000 gallon spill from the overturned tug in Norfolk, can easily cost a few hundred thousand dollars; the shipyard owner in that case was fortunate to have paid far less. 的 cost for a larger spill，或者 spill in a sensitive location such as a fishing grounds, 野生动物保护区，或者t a beach in an area with a tourism based economy (弗吉尼亚海滩 or Sandbridge, 举几个例子), can reach or exceed many millions of dollars.

 吉姆·朗彭德尔 & 亚洲博彩平台排名股东, focuses his practice on oil spills and other matters relating to water and environmental law. 联系 him with questions by calling (757) 502-7326 or by sending 电邮至 jlang@salamzone.com.