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A.  Louisiana is subject to greater exposure to a major oil spill disaster than any other state.  This is the result of the large volumes of stored oil, numerous production platforms and miles of pipelines, large numbers of inland barges, and heavy tanker traffic, including the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port which receives fifteen percent of the oil imported into the United States.  This exposure, coupled with the limited adequate highway access to the coast and remote inland areas for rapid transport of oil spill equipment and few areas suitable for staging facilities, creates great potential for a major oil spill event and its consequences in a state which has twenty-six percent of the nation’s commercial fisheries, has the nation’s highest marine recreational fishery catches, leads the nation in fur production and the world in alligator production, and has more overwintering waterfowl than any other state.  Commercial and recreational marine fisheries are concentrated within a few miles inshore and offshore of the coastline where oil from a major coastal spill would concentrate.

B.  Added to the high exposure and inaccessibility of large portions of the coast and inland areas is the vulnerability of Louisiana’s nearshore and wetland environments.  The numerous shallow interconnecting waterways and gentle slope of the coastal areas would allow deep penetration of oil into the state’s estuaries.  The vast expanses of Louisiana’s soft unconsolidated marshes lying just a few inches above sea level would, in the event of an oil spill, soak up large amounts of oil.

Acts 1991, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 7, §1, eff. April 23, 1991; Acts 1995, No. 740, §1.