Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2478 – Financial responsibility
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2478
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Discharge: means the placing, releasing, spilling, percolating, draining, pumping, leaking, seeping, emitting, or other escaping of pollutants into the air, waters, subsurface water, or ground as the result of a prior act or omission; or the placing of pollutants into pits, drums, barrels, or similar containers under conditions and circumstances that leaking, seeping, draining, or escaping of the pollutants can be reasonably anticipated. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Facility: means a pollution source or any public or private property or facility where an activity is conducted which is required to be regulated under this Subtitle and which does or has the potential to do any of the following:
(a) Emit air contaminants into the atmosphere. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: means any individual, municipality, public or private corporation, partnership, firm, the United States Government, and any agent or subdivision thereof or any other juridical person, which shall include, but not be limited to, trusts, joint stock companies, associations, the state of Louisiana, political subdivisions of the state of Louisiana, commissions, and interstate bodies. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
A. Each owner or operator of a tank vessel with a capacity to carry ten thousand gallons or more of oil as fuel or cargo subject to the provisions of this Chapter operating within coastal waters or a terminal facility shall maintain and furnish evidence of their financial responsibility for costs and damages from unauthorized discharges of oil in accordance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-380).
B. If a tank vessel with a capacity to carry ten thousand gallons or more of oil as fuel or cargo covered by this Chapter or terminal facility is not required under federal law to establish and maintain evidence of financial responsibility, the owner or operator of that vessel or terminal facility shall establish and maintain evidence in a form prescribed by rules promulgated under this Chapter that such registrant or vessel has the ability to meet liability that may be incurred under this Chapter.
C. After an unauthorized discharge of oil, a vessel shall remain in the jurisdiction of the coordinator until the owner, operator, or person in charge has shown the coordinator evidence of financial responsibility. The coordinator may not detain the vessel longer than twelve hours after proving financial responsibility.
D. In addition to any other remedy or enforcement provision, the coordinator may suspend a registrant’s discharge prevention and response certificate or may deny a vessel entry into any port in waters of the state for failure to comply with this Section.
Acts 1991, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 7, §1, eff. April 23, 1991.