THIS IN FROM WORK BOAT

AWO pushes for Subchapter M Final Rule by mid-2014

by Dale K. DuPont
9/11/2013 - See more at: http://www.workboat.com/Online-Features/2013/AWO-pushes-for-Subchapter-M-Final-Rule-by-mid-2014/#sthash.pDYZrQVW.dpuf

   The American Waterways Operators (AWO) pressed Congress Tuesday to get the long-awaited towing vessel inspection rule published before the current Coast Guard commandant’s watch is over next year.
Coast Guard commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. was four-year term began in mid-2010.
The rule offers a “historic opportunity to take safety in our industry to a new level,” much like the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA ’90) did for tankers, AWO president Thomas A. Allegretti told the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
Without it, operators “face real vulnerability,” he said, citing a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation following a 1998 accident that all towing vessels implement a safety management system. A tow pushed by the Anne Holly allided with the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis causing $11 million in damages.
Safety management systems are a key component of the Subchapter M rule and, Allegretti said, also may have prevented the massive 2008 oil spill on the Lower Mississippi River when the towboat Mel Oliver pushed a loaded barge into the path of the 600' tanker Tintomara, slicing the barge in half.
- See more at: http://www.workboat.com/Online-Features/2013/AWO-pushes-for-Subchapter-M-Final-Rule-by-mid-2014/#sthash.pDYZrQVW.dpuf

                                                                                       

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