Coast Guard January 14, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Coast Guard is establishing 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 rule is consistent with a final rule on this subject published by the Environmental Protection Agency.