For over 30 years, vessels were excluded from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit regulations that required permits for any “discharge of a pollutant” from a point source (a vessel is considered a point source). Lawsuits by environmental groups challenged this exclusion and since February 2009 the exemption ... Read More

The Water Quality Insurance Syndicate has offices in Lower Manhattan in New York City, and the events of September 11th remain vivid. However, in its aftermath it was difficult to envision the broad reaching ripple effects resulting from the event. Among the effects is the clash of two major ... Read More

Criminal sanctions are an acceptable deterrent used to combat deliberate dumping of oil and other intentional environmental misconduct. Since insuring against intentional criminal acts is against public policy, pollution insurers have not provided coverage. Paper ID #01536, 2001 International Oil Spill Conference ABSTRACT Criminal sanctions are an acceptable deterrent ... Read More

The introduction and adoption of the Unified Command System (“UCS”) /Incident Command System (“ICS”) under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-380, as amended) (“OPA ‘90″) has been largely effective, the ongoing training of Federal On-Scene Coordinators (“FOSC”) by the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety School has raised ... Read More