Current through Reg. 49, No. 38; September 20, 2024
(a) All persons
shall conduct their activities in Texas' submerged lands in a manner designed
to avoid damage to shipwrecks in Texas' submerged lands, and to protect and
preserve the cultural resources of Texas. If, during the conduct of activities
in submerged state land tracts, a person discovers the existence of a
shipwreck, the person shall promptly notify the commission of the existence of
the historic property and shall conduct the activities in a manner that will
avoid damage to the shipwreck.
(b)
When a person submits an application for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, the person shall describe the proposed activity in sufficient detail
to enable the commission to review the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' public
notice publication, and determine if the proposed activity may impact a
shipwreck.
(c) If the proposed
activity is in an area where a shipwreck is known to exist, or where there is a
likelihood that a shipwreck exists, the commission may require an archeological
survey, the purpose of which is to locate shipwrecks.
(d) Conduct of such a survey may be
recommended by the commission to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and may be
required as a condition of issuance of the permit from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. Such survey must be done under a Texas Antiquities Permit issued by
the commission. The Texas Antiquities Permit is issued only to a qualified
archeologist and allows the commission to monitor the quality and results of
the survey.
(e) The commission has
set the following minimum standards for conducting a survey.
(1) Horizontal positioning.
(A) Texas' submerged lands within bays and
rivers and within the 3 nautical mile line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(i) The avoidance margin in this area is
fifty (50) meters.
(ii) The maximum
survey line spacing in this area is twenty (20) meters.
(B) Texas' submerged lands offshore beyond
the 3 nautical mile line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(i) The avoidance margin in this area is
one-hundred and fifty (150) meters.
(ii) The maximum survey line spacing in this
area is thirty (30) meters.
(C) The geographical extent of an
archeological survey must include the construction impacts (e.g. anchor
patterns of construction barges) at the margin of the primary activity and the
size of the avoidance margin. Survey for a linear project (e.g. pipelines,
dredged channels, and utility lines) must include the centerline of the project
route and at least one offset line each side of the centerline. A survey for
marine seismic activity that employs drilling and detonation of buried
explosive charges must, at a minimum, collect data along at least one line of
survey crossing each source point and extending at least 20 meters to either
side of each source point. The survey area must be adequate to allow movement
of the proposed activity such that it is outside of the avoidance margin of any
significant magnetic anomaly or sonar target yet fully within the area
surveyed.
(D) If avoidance of an
anomaly or target determined to be significant by the archeologist holding the
survey permit is not feasible, further investigation of the anomaly or target
will be required as stated in subsections (g), (i) and (j) of this section.
Such further investigation must also be conducted under a permit issued by the
commission.
(2)
Instrumentation and Survey Procedures. Instrumentation is classified as remote
sensing equipment that detects the presence of an object by its inherent
physical properties or by signals reflected from the object. The preferred
suite of remote sensing equipment includes, but is not limited to, a marine
magnetometer, a high-resolution side-scan sonar, and a recording fathometer.
(A) The magnetometer should be set to detect
and record the magnetic environment at 1-second intervals or less and the data
should be recorded on computer disc or other appropriate computer media. The
distance of the magnetometer should not exceed 6 meters from the marine
bed.
(B) The side-scan sonar should
use a transceiver designated as a 300 kHz transceiver minimum and should be
operated in that frequency or a higher frequency if available and the data
should be recorded on computer disc or other appropriate computer
media.
(C) The fathometer must be
capable of recording bathymetric data through digital output to a
computer.
(D) The magnetometer,
side-scan sonar, and fathometer, to the extent possible, should be interfaced,
either directly or through computer files, with the global positioning system
receiver to coordinate positions with the remote sensing equipment
data.
(E) A differentially
corrected global positioning system (GPS) receiver or system of equal or
greater accuracy will be used for navigation and positioning.
(F) The positioning system must collect
accurate position data at the same time interval as the magnetometer to
preclude the necessity of interpolating positions between more widely spaced
position fixes.
(3)
Variance from the parameters specified in this section may be requested from
the commission. Such variance must be based on quantifiable factors, e.g. the
water is too shallow for effective use of side-scan sonar. Likewise, the
commission may modify the parameters for a given survey area based on
information held by the commission, e.g. survey line spacing may be decreased
in the immediate vicinity of a known state archeological landmark beyond the 3
nautical mile line in the Gulf of Mexico.
(f) If a person detects a significant anomaly
or sonar target as a result of conducting the survey described in this section,
the person shall record a specific UTM, Latitude/Longitude, or state plane
coordinate position, along with the geodetic datum in which the coordinates
were recorded, and either:
(1) Conduct a
thorough and good faith effort to search out the object causing the anomaly or
sonar target and identify whether the object might possibly be a state
archeological landmark or eligible property in Texas' submerged lands.
Excavation in order to make an identification at this stage of investigation is
prohibited without a permit issued by the commission. Or, the person
may:
(2) Relocate the activity to
an area outside of the appropriate avoidance margin in order to avoid
disturbance of the object causing the anomaly or sonar target and thereby avoid
damage to a shipwreck.
(g) If the person determines, through actions
conducted under subsection (e) of this section, that the object causing the
significant anomaly or sonar target is definitely not a shipwreck, and if the
commission concurs with that determination, the person may perform the activity
in a normal, routine manner.
(h) If
the person determines, through actions conducted under subsection (e) of this
section, that the object causing the significant anomaly or sonar target is a
shipwreck or might be a shipwreck, the person shall either:
(1) Notify the commission of the existence of
a shipwreck or possible shipwreck, report the coordinate position to the
commission and relocate the activity to an area outside of the appropriate
avoidance margin in order to avoid disturbance of the object causing the
significant anomaly or sonar target and thereby avoid damage to a shipwreck;
or
(2) Notify the commission of the
existence of a shipwreck or possible shipwreck and report the coordinate
position to the commission; whereupon the commission can perform its activities
described in Subchapter C, Powers and Duties, and Subchapter E, Prohibitions,
of the Antiquities Code of Texas. The commission may require additional
archeological investigations of the shipwreck or possible shipwreck, or, if the
commission concurs that no damage will occur to the shipwreck from the proposed
activity, the commission may authorize the person to proceed with the proposed
activity in a normal, routine manner.
(i) Investigation by archeological divers to
identify the source of an anomaly or sonar target is appropriate under a survey
permit. Such investigations may involve removal of overburden to expose small
section of a buried object but shall not involve extensive excavation or
artifact recovery. Survey level diving investigations must be approved as part
of the survey permit issued to the archeologist or as a separate survey
permit.
