[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1357-1358]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-455]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


August 1993 Tampa Bay Oil Spill: Notice of Availability and 
Request for Comments on a Draft Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan

AGENCIES: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Commerce, United States Department of the Interior (DOI), and 
Department of Environmental Protection, State of Florida.

ACTION: Notice of availability of a draft damage assessment and 
restoration plan and of a 45-day period for public comment on the plan.

SUMMARY: Notice is given that the draft document entitled ``Draft 
Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan for the 1993 Tampa Bay Oil 
Spill, Volume I--Ecological Injuries'' is available for public review 
and comment. The document represents the first part (Volume I) of the 
draft damage assessment and restoration plan (Draft DARP) being 
developed by the State and Federal natural resource trustees to assess 
natural resource damages for the injury, loss, destruction and lost use 
of natural resources that resulted from the oil spill in Tampa Bay, 
Florida, following the August 10, 1993 collision of certain vessels in 
Tampa Bay. Volume I presents the methods proposed for use to restore 
and compensate for natural resources injuries and losses of an 
ecological nature. Volume I of the Draft DARP is consistent with 
Section 1006 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), Chapter 376 of the 
Florida Statutes and the guidance provided by the Natural Resource 
Damage Assessment regulations at 43 CFR Part 11 (1994), as amended. 
Public review of this draft plan, as announced by this notice, is 
consistent with Section 1006 of OPA and 43 CFR 11.32(c) of those 
regulations.

DATES: Comments must be submitted in writing on or before March 4, 
1996.

ADDRESSES: Requests for copies of Volume I of the Draft DARP should be 
sent to Jim Jeansonne of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA) Damage Assessment Center, 9721 Executive Center 
Drive N., Suite 134, St. Petersburg, FL 33702, or Jane Urquhart-
Donnelly of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), 
Office of Coastal Protection, 8407 Laurel Fair Circle, Rm. 214, Tampa, 
FL 33619. Volume I is also available for public review at the St. 
Petersburg Public Library, Main Library Reference Dept., 3745 9th Ave 
N., St. Petersburg FL during normal library hours. Written comments on 
the plan should be sent to either Jim Jeansonne of the NOAA Damage 
Assessment Center or to Jane Urquhart-Donnelly of the DEP Office of 
Coastal Protection at the same address as listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jim Jeansonne of the NOAA Damage 
Assessment Center, (813) 570-5391 or Jane Urquhart-Donnelly, (813) 744-
6462.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 10, 1993, at approximately 5:45 
a.m., the tank barge ``OCEAN 255'' and the tank barge ``B-155'' 
collided with the freighter ``BALSA 37'' just south of Mullet Key near 
the entrance of Tampa Bay, Florida. The OCEAN 255 caught fire upon 
impact and burned for approximately 18 hours. During that period, 
approximately 32,000 gallons of Jet A fuel, diesel, and gasoline were 
discharged from the OCEAN 255 into lower Tampa Bay. The B-155 was also 
damaged by the collision and discharged approximately 330,000 gallons 
of #6 fuel oil in the same vicinity. A number of different natural 
resources were eventually exposed to oil as a result of these 
discharges, including mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes, birds, sea 
turtles, shellfish beds, bottom sediments, sandy shorelines and the 
estuarine water column, with a variety of direct injuries and lost uses 
of natural resources documented to have resulted from such exposure.
    The incident is subject to the authority of OPA, 33 U.S.C. 2701-
2761 (OPA), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. 1321 et 
seq. (FWPCA) and the Florida Pollutant Discharge and Control Act, Fla. 
Stat. 376.121. NOAA, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the 
Florida Department of Environmental Protection are trustees for natural 
resources pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 9601 et 
seq., OPA, the FWPCA, subpart G of the National Oil and Hazardous 
Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, 40 CFR 300.600-300.615, and, in 
the case of the Florida Department of 

[[Page 1358]]
Environmental Protection, the Florida Pollutant Discharge and Control 
Act, Fla Stat. 376.121 (1994), and in the case of the Federal trustees, 
Executive Order 12777.
    These State and Federal agencies (the co-trustees) previously 
determined that natural resources and resource services subject to 
their trust authority were injured or lost as a result of the August 
1993 oil spill and that the injuries and losses were sufficient to 
warrant proceeding with an assessment of natural resource damages under 
the above authorities. That determination is documented in the 
``Preassessment Screen and Determination for August 10, 1993 Tampa Bay, 
Florida Oil Spill'', of November 2, 1993. Volume I of the Draft DARP 
presents the assessment and restoration plan developed by the co-
trustees to address the direct injuries to natural resources and the 
interim losses of ecological resource services caused by the spill. 
Volume I evaluates restoration alternatives for each category of 
ecological injury or loss and defines compensation for resource 
injuries based on necessary or appropriate restoration actions, 
wherever possible. Further, the draft plan contemplates the use of 
simplified, cost-effective procedures and methods to document and 
quantify resource injuries and losses, as feasible and appropriate to 
specific resource injuries or losses. Accordingly, proposed methods and 
procedures include the use of relevant scientific literature, 
scientifically based models, and focused injury determination or 
quantification studies, alone or in combination, depending on the 
specific injury or loss category.
    The August 1993 oil spill also disrupted publicly important human 
uses of natural resources, however, assessment methods and restoration 
plans addressing public compensation for those lost natural resources 
uses will be outlined in the second part (Volume II) of the Draft DARP, 
currently being developed by the co-trustees.
    Interested members of the public are invited to request a copy of 
Volume I of the Draft DARP from and to submit written comments on the 
plan to either Jim Jeansonne of NOAA's Damage Assessment Center, or to 
Jane Urquhart-Donnelly, at the same addresses given above. All written 
comments will be considered by NOAA, the Department of the Interior, 
and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in finalizing 
the assessment and restoration plan for the ecological injuries and 
losses and will be included in the Report of Assessment issued at the 
conclusion of the assessment process.

    Dated: December 21, 1995.
Terry D. Garcia,
General Counsel, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-455 Filed 1-18-96; 8:45 am]
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