Lieber to Introduce Legislation to Require Tugboat Escorts for Hazardous Shipments in California's Harbors

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

California Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sally Lieber has sent a letter to her colleagues indicating she plans to introduce legislation when the legislature reconvenes in January that would require the adoption of regulations for tugboat escorts for vessels carrying hazardous materials within California’s harbors.

Lieber references a bill by Senator Byron Sher in 2004, SB 1480, which would have authorized escorts and which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The bill Lieber is introducing would require it.

Governor Schwarzenegger's veto message at that time stated:

"Protecting public safety and the environment from a potential spill of hazardous material is of paramount importance. California must do all it can to minimize the possibility of such a disaster. However, there are neither ship design issues nor a pattern of problems suggesting these vessels need tugboat escorts. In fact, since the creation of the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, there have been no reported harbor accidents involving ships carrying any of these materials.

"The San Francisco Harbor Safety Committee considered the use of tugboat escorts for these types of vessels and concluded that escorts are not necessary, particularly since the US Coast Guard already exercises the authority to require tug escorts for any problem vessel."

Since there now has been a pretty big harbor accident in the San Francisco Bay and it is clear that we cannot rely on the U.S. Coast Guard to require tugboat escorts where we learn the hard way after an accident that a large cargo ship has become a "problem vessel," hopefully the Governor will sign Lieber's bill this time.

It's also not as if we didn't have warning signals of the potential for a spill disaster when this bill was vetoed. The Assembly Committee on Natural Resources Analysis in 2004 noted that:

"In 1995, the Mundogas Europe, a 561-foot Liberian tanker ship containing 36 million pounds of pressurized anhydrous ammonia--a highly toxic chemical used to make fertilizer--lost steering near the Golden Gate Bridge and nearly collided with the bridge's south tower because there were no tugboats nearby to stop it. Had a collision occurred, allowing the anhydrous ammonia to escape and mix with seawater, a major public health and environmental disaster would have occurred in San Francisco.