| (a) The General Land Office (GLO) is required to recover
expenditures from the coastal protection fund pursuant to OSPRA, §40.153
and §40.161(a), and therefore the GLO will assess response costs
as delineated in this subsection.
(b) Whenever the GLO is unable to identify the person
responsible for an unauthorized discharge of oil into or posing an
imminent threat to coastal waters, the GLO will respond to the unauthorized
discharge by initiating cleanup and other necessary response actions.
Upon identification of the responsible person, the GLO will seek reimbursement
for all monies expended from the coastal protection fund including,
but not limited to, the following:
(1) actual costs of engaging a contractor to conduct
cleanup;
(2) actual expenses of GLO personnel including time,
transportation, lodging, and overhead;
(3) administrative and investigative expenses incurred
in identifying the responsible person, including, but not limited
to:
(A) sampling and analysis of the discharged oil and
comparison samples; and
(B) field investigative costs; and
(C) accounting and legal costs.
(c) Whenever GLO personnel respond to the scene of
an unauthorized discharge of oil that actually enters or poses an
imminent threat to coastal waters, the following response costs shall
be assessed against the responsible person:
(1) actual expenses of GLO personnel including time,
transportation, lodging, and overhead; and all administrative costs
of preparing the assessment; or
(2) a minimum response cost of $250.
(d) The GLO will assess response costs when:
(1) oil enters coastal waters;
(2) oil does not enter coastal waters but poses an
imminent threat to coastal waters and a response is required to prevent
the oil from entering coastal waters.
(e) The GLO will not assess response costs when:
(1) oil enters coastal waters but GLO personnel do
not spend more than two hours, excluding travel time, at the scene
of the spill;
(2) oil is spilled but does not enter or pose an imminent
threat to coastal waters.
(f) The minimum response cost of $250 will be billed
whenever GLO personnel are required to monitor prevention or response
activities and the time spent at the spill scene, excluding travel
time, is more than two hours and less than eight hours. In the event
that eight or more hours of GLO response personnel time is required
at the scene of the spill, the responsible party will be assessed
the actual costs of response incurred by the GLO. Response costs will
not be assessed where either the Railroad Commission of Texas or the
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is the state on-scene coordinator,
unless requested by the Railroad Commission of Texas or the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality and approved by the commissioner.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §19.55 adopted to be effective May 14, 1993, 18 TexReg 2849; amended to be effective March 6, 1995, 20 TexReg 1261; amended to be effective January 27, 2013, 38 TexReg 296 |
