| (a) When the General Land Office (GLO) receives notice
of an actual or threatened unauthorized discharge of oil into Texas
coastal waters, the GLO will determine whether state response action
is required. If state response action is required, the GLO will assess
the discharge and determine whether further response actions should
be initiated or required. If assessments of the discharge indicate
it involves predominantly a hazardous substance, the GLO shall coordinate
all response actions until the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
can assume responsibility over hazardous substance discharge response
operations. A substance is predominantly a hazardous substance when
analytical testing of a representative sample indicates the presence
of more than 50% of a substance that is not oil as defined by OSPRA,
and that is a hazardous substance as defined by the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality or its successor agency. Pending results
of analytical tests of the substance, the determination of its predominant
characteristics shall be made by investigating the source of the discharge,
its physical properties, and its behavior in the environment. The
GLO will notify the trustees of the actual or threatened unauthorized
discharge.
(b) In response to any actual or threatened unauthorized
discharge, the commissioner may designate a state on-scene coordinator
to act on the commissioner's behalf at the site of the actual or threatened
discharge. It is the duty of the state on-scene coordinator, in cooperation
with the federal on-scene coordinator, to assess in detail all aspects
of the actual or threatened unauthorized discharge, evaluate and direct
the responsible person's response activities, initiate and direct
other response activities, carry out orders of the commissioner, and
report at regular intervals to the commissioner. The state on-scene
coordinator has an ongoing duty to evaluate, assess, and direct all
response activities in order to insure compliance with applicable
contingency plans, discharge response plans, and to ensure public
health and safety, and to minimize to the greatest extent possible
property damage and damages to natural resources.
(c) The GLO will coordinate its response with the federal
on-scene coordinator and will contact other state agencies who have
jurisdiction over the unauthorized discharge.
(d) Based on the assessment of the state on-scene coordinator,
the GLO will determine whether and where to establish an on-scene
command post. The state on-scene command post will serve as the single
point of communication and coordination for state oversight and coordination
of response actions. The post will be staffed until response operations
are declared complete.
(e) The GLO will utilize the Incident Command System
for all spills where a state on-scene coordinator is appointed by
the commissioner.
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| Source Note: The provisions of this §19.33 adopted to be effective February 21, 1992, 17 TexReg 1109; amended to be effective March 6, 1995, 20 TexReg 1261; amended to be effective September 18, 2003, 28 TexReg 7996; amended to be effective January 27, 2013, 38 TexReg 296 |
