| (a) All persons shall conduct their activities in Texas'
submerged lands in a manner designed to avoid damage to shipwrecks
in Texas' submerged lands, and to protect and preserve the cultural
resources of Texas. If, during the conduct of activities in submerged
state land tracts, a person discovers the existence of a shipwreck,
the person shall promptly notify the commission of the existence of
the historic property and shall conduct the activities in a manner
that will avoid damage to the shipwreck.
(b) When a person submits an application for a permit
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the person shall describe the
proposed activity in sufficient detail to enable the commission to
review the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' public notice publication,
and determine if the proposed activity may impact a shipwreck.
(c) If the proposed activity is in an area where a
shipwreck is known to exist, or where there is a likelihood that a
shipwreck exists, the commission may require an archeological survey,
the purpose of which is to locate shipwrecks.
(d) Conduct of such a survey may be recommended by
the commission to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and may be required
as a condition of issuance of the permit from the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. Such survey must be done under a Texas Antiquities Permit
issued by the commission. The Texas Antiquities Permit is issued only
to a qualified archeologist and allows the commission to monitor the
quality and results of the survey.
(e) The commission has set the following minimum standards
for conducting a survey.
(1) Horizontal positioning.
(A) Texas' submerged lands within bays and rivers and
within the 3 nautical mile line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(i) The avoidance margin in this area is fifty (50)
meters.
(ii) The maximum survey line spacing in this area is
twenty (20) meters.
(B) Texas' submerged lands offshore beyond the 3 nautical
mile line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(i) The avoidance margin in this area is one-hundred
and fifty (150) meters.
(ii) The maximum survey line spacing in this area is
thirty (30) meters.
(C) The geographical extent of an archeological survey
must include the construction impacts (e.g. anchor patterns of construction
barges) at the margin of the primary activity and the size of the
avoidance margin. Survey for a linear project (e.g. pipelines, dredged
channels, and utility lines) must include the centerline of the project
route and at least one offset line each side of the centerline. A
survey for marine seismic activity that employs drilling and detonation
of buried explosive charges must, at a minimum, collect data along
at least one line of survey crossing each source point and extending
at least 20 meters to either side of each source point. The survey
area must be adequate to allow movement of the proposed activity such
that it is outside of the avoidance margin of any significant magnetic
anomaly or sonar target yet fully within the area surveyed.
(D) If avoidance of an anomaly or target determined
to be significant by the archeologist holding the survey permit is
not feasible, further investigation of the anomaly or target will
be required as stated in subsections (g), (i) and (j) of this section.
Such further investigation must also be conducted under a permit issued
by the commission.
(2) Instrumentation and Survey Procedures. Instrumentation
is classified as remote sensing equipment that detects the presence
of an object by its inherent physical properties or by signals reflected
from the object. The preferred suite of remote sensing equipment includes,
but is not limited to, a marine magnetometer, a high-resolution side-scan
sonar, and a recording fathometer.
(A) The magnetometer should be set to detect and record
the magnetic environment at 1-second intervals or less and the data
should be recorded on computer disc or other appropriate computer
media. The distance of the magnetometer should not exceed 6 meters
from the marine bed.
(B) The side-scan sonar should use a transceiver designated
as a 300 kHz transceiver minimum and should be operated in that frequency
or a higher frequency if available and the data should be recorded
on computer disc or other appropriate computer media.
(C) The fathometer must be capable of recording bathymetric
data through digital output to a computer.
(D) The magnetometer, side-scan sonar, and fathometer,
to the extent possible, should be interfaced, either directly or through
computer files, with the global positioning system receiver to coordinate
positions with the remote sensing equipment data.
(E) A differentially corrected global positioning system
(GPS) receiver or system of equal or greater accuracy will be used
for navigation and positioning.
(F) The positioning system must collect accurate position
data at the same time interval as the magnetometer to preclude the
necessity of interpolating positions between more widely spaced position
fixes.
(3) Variance from the parameters specified in this
section may be requested from the commission. Such variance must be
based on quantifiable factors, e.g. the water is too shallow for effective
use of side-scan sonar. Likewise, the commission may modify the parameters
for a given survey area based on information held by the commission,
e.g. survey line spacing may be decreased in the immediate vicinity
of a known state archeological landmark beyond the 3 nautical mile
line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(f) If a person detects a significant anomaly or sonar
target as a result of conducting the survey described in this section,
the person shall record a specific UTM, Latitude/Longitude, or state
plane coordinate position, along with the geodetic datum in which
the coordinates were recorded, and either:
(1) Conduct a thorough and good faith effort to search
out the object causing the anomaly or sonar target and identify whether
the object might possibly be a state archeological landmark or eligible
property in Texas' submerged lands. Excavation in order to make an
identification at this stage of investigation is prohibited without
a permit issued by the commission. Or, the person may:
(2) Relocate the activity to an area outside of the
appropriate avoidance margin in order to avoid disturbance of the
object causing the anomaly or sonar target and thereby avoid damage
to a shipwreck.
(g) If the person determines, through actions conducted
under subsection (e) of this section, that the object causing the
significant anomaly or sonar target is definitely not a shipwreck,
and if the commission concurs with that determination, the person
may perform the activity in a normal, routine manner.
(h) If the person determines, through actions conducted
under subsection (e) of this section, that the object causing the
significant anomaly or sonar target is a shipwreck or might be a shipwreck,
the person shall either:
(1) Notify the commission of the existence of a shipwreck
or possible shipwreck, report the coordinate position to the commission
and relocate the activity to an area outside of the appropriate avoidance
margin in order to avoid disturbance of the object causing the significant
anomaly or sonar target and thereby avoid damage to a shipwreck; or
(2) Notify the commission of the existence of a shipwreck
or possible shipwreck and report the coordinate position to the commission;
whereupon the commission can perform its activities described in Subchapter
C, Powers and Duties, and Subchapter E, Prohibitions, of the Antiquities
Code of Texas. The commission may require additional archeological
investigations of the shipwreck or possible shipwreck, or, if the
commission concurs that no damage will occur to the shipwreck from
the proposed activity, the commission may authorize the person to
proceed with the proposed activity in a normal, routine manner.
(i) Investigation by archeological divers to identify
the source of an anomaly or sonar target is appropriate under a survey
permit. Such investigations may involve removal of overburden to expose
small section of a buried object but shall not involve extensive excavation
or artifact recovery. Survey level diving investigations must be approved
as part of the survey permit issued to the archeologist or as a separate
survey permit.
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