Coast Guard June 12, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Coast Guard has established permanent safety zones for annual events in the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan zone. This rule will restrict vessels from portions of water and shore areas during events that pose a hazard to public safety. The safety zones established by this final rule are necessary to protect spectators, participants, and vessels from the hazards associated with fireworks displays, air shows, and other events.

The Coast Guard proposes to establish standards and practices concerning the ``all appropriate inquiries'' element of a defense to liability of an owner or operator of a facility that is the source of a discharge or substantial threat of discharge of oil into the navigable waters or adjoining shorelines or the exclusive economic zone. To be entitled to the defense, those persons must show, among other elements not addressed in this rulemaking, that, before acquiring the real property on which the facility is located, they had made all appropriate inquiries into its previous ownership and uses to determine the presence or likely presence of oil. This proposed rule is consistent with a final rule on this subject published by the Environmental Protection Agency.