Washington State Maritime Cooperative (WSMC) - New Enrollment Agreement Policy

Based on information given in ECM Maritime Services Client Alert 21 of 17 September 2008:

Background

The State of Washington requires that any vessel 300 gross tons or greater have an oil spill contingency plan onboard that meets the state’s requirements. Although tank vessels and non-tank vessels are required under USA federal law to have OPA 90 vessel response plans onboard, Washington’s contingency plan requirements must also be met. In order to comply with this requirement, vessel owners/operators must either submit their own plan or enroll individually under an umbrella plan prepared by the Washington State Maritime Cooperative (WSMC). WSMC is a non-profit corporation that provides an oil spill contingency plan and response resources for vessels operating within designated Washington marine waters that do not have a response plan approved by the State of Washington. WSMC has an existing OSRO contract with NRC to provide response personnel and equipment under the WSMC contingency plan. WSMC only provides response coverage for the first 24 hours of an oil spill from a covered vessel. Within that time period the QI works with WSMC to assume responsibility for spill management on owners’/operators’ behalf. The WSMC plan meets the requirements of the Department of Ecology’s contingency plan regulations and supplements existing federal OPA 90 vessel response plans.

WSMC provides vessels with the required contingency plan and spill response coverage for state waters within 3 miles of the shoreline from Grays Harbor along the outer coast into Puget Sound. Enrolling in this plan means that the ship’s crew and owner/operator are legally bound to follow the procedures of the umbrella plan for an oil spill or substantial threat of an oil spill. Upon enrollment, the vessel is provided with a copy of the WSMC Field Document which must be kept onboard the vessel. The WSMC Field Document contains specific notification procedures which must be followed in the event of a spill or threat of a spill. WSMC’s 24 hour telephone number is: +1.206.448.7557. For more details, please contact your agent or go to WSMC’s webpage at: http://www.wsmcoop.org/.

WSMC’s New Enrollment Agreement Policy

In August 2008 WSMC revised their vessel enrollment agreement and added new language requesting that vessel owners/operators who directly contract with the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) designate WSMC as their “Authorized Representative” for immediately accessing MSRC response resources in a spill incident. ECM Maritime Services staff contacted WSMC’s executive director for clarification on this new “requirement”. After talking with WSMC about this issue, ECM report that owners/operators are not required to follow this new designation process or submit the MSRC certificate referenced in the enrollment agreement. WSMC did not request a similar designation letter from NRC because WSMC has already contracted with NRC to provide response resources under the umbrella contingency plan. Your QI should have full and immediate access to MSRC’s, NRC’s and other OSRO contracted response resources in the event of an oil spill.  

ECM Maritime Services Recommendations/Actions  

ECM recommend that owners/operators do not provide WSMC with the MSRC certificate. Since many agents are authorized to enroll vessels in WSMC, ECM recommend they also instruct the agent to identify NRC and MSRC (as applicable) as OSROs but are not allowed to submit a MSRC Certificate designating WSMC as their authorized representative to assign MSRC resources on the owners behalf. However, the appropriate block(s) in Part 1 of the enrollment agreement that indicates the contracted OSRO (MSRC and/or NRC), as appropriate, should continue to be marked.  

ECM Maritime Services has submitted a letter to WSMC strongly urging them to remove the authorized representative designation process and MSRC certificate in the enrollment agreement or revise the language to make it clear the process is not required. 

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Members requiring assistance or further clarification on this issue should contact the Managers' London Representatives.