a. On the 31st day following the adoption of rules and regulations pursuant to section 5 of this act, no owner or operator of a refinery, storage, transfer terminal, or pipeline facility, or a vessel while in the waters of the State, shall transfer, or authorize or allow to be transferred any hazardous liquid between any such facility and a vessel, or among two or more vessels, unless, as prescribed by the department, either a boom or other containment device is in place as hereinafter provided, or the containment device is available, along with trained personnel, at the site of transfer operations on a stand-by basis for immediate deployment in the event of a discharge, spill or release during the transfer.

In the case of (1) a transfer of a hazardous liquid between a land-based facility and a vessel, or between two or more vessels at a facility, the owner or operator of the facility shall be responsible for the containment device, trained personnel, or other containment or mitigation measures required by the department, or (2) a vessel-to-vessel transfer occurring away from a land-based facility, the owner or operator of each of the vessels involved shall be responsible therefor.

b. If a containment device is required by the department to be in place during a transfer of a hazardous liquid, the device shall be deployed not less than 15 feet from the vessel or vessels prior to commencement of the transfer operation, except that in the case of a docked vessel the dock may be used to complete the encirclement of a vessel with a containment device.

The provisions of this act shall not apply to the transfer of a hazardous liquid to be used solely as fuel to power a vessel.

As used in this act, “hazardous liquid” shall mean a hazardous substance as such term is defined in section 3 of P.L.1976, c.141 (C. 58:10-23.11b) that is in liquid form at the time of transfer of the hazardous substance from facility to vessel or from vessel-to-vessel; “list hazardous liquid” means a hazardous liquid placed on a list prepared by the department pursuant to subsection a. of section 2 of this act.

L.1990,c.76,s.1.