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Oil Spill Prevention

Enactment of the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1990 expanded the Commission's responsibilities through the creation of the Marine Facilities Division (MFD). In the past, the Commission exercised jurisdiction over marine oil facilities located only on state-leased lands, which included all production facilities offshore, but only twenty marine oil terminals onshore.

Now, the Commission's efforts include providing the best achievable protection of the marine environment at all the state's 80 marine oil terminals, both offshore and onshore, by stressing the prevention of oil spills. MFD's spirit of cooperation and commitment to quality are evident in its relationships with the environmental community, the maritime industry and other regulatory agencies. Marine terminal operations are monitored every day of the week by the Commission's Marine Terminal Safety Inspectors working out of MFD's two field offices.

MFD's goals include: ensuring the safe and pollution-free transfer of crude oil and product between tank vessels and land-based facilities; adopting marine terminal regulations which ensure the best achievable protection of the public health, safety and the environment; and coordinating with federal, state and local agencies having similar goals, to maximize the utilization of limited agency resources while preventing overlap.

Along with these direct responsibilities, the Commission's MFD is a major member of several government/industry oversight and coordination groups including the State Oil Spill Technical Advisory Committee and the State Interagency Oil Spill Committee (SIOSC) and its subcommittees. SIOSC works to coordinate state, local and industry oil spill prevention and spill response and contingency planning programs.