Judge rebuffs challenge to law prompted by Buzzards Bay oil spill

By Beth Treffeisen

Posted Jan 24, 2020

BOSTON — The state attorney general’s office has prevailed in its defense of a state law designed to prevent catastrophic oil spills in Buzzards Bay.

U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit filed in 2018 by American Waterways Operators against the Coast Guard challenging the validity of the Massachusetts Oil Spill Prevention Act. Attorney General Maura Healey’s office intervened in the case in May.

“We are very pleased by the Court’s decision to reject the shipping industry’s latest effort to overturn this important law that protects our waters from the devastating consequences of oil spills,” Healey said in a statement. “This ruling is a victory for our efforts to protect our natural resources, our coastal economy, and our waterways.”

The law requires barges carrying oil through Buzzards Bay to have a tugboat escort. It also includes navigational routes and minimum personnel on barges. It was enacted in response to an April 2003 spill that dumped an estimated 98,000 gallons of oil into Buzzards Bay. The spill contaminated water, killed endangered seabirds, destroyed shoreline resources and caused the closure of beaches and shellfishing beds.

American Waterways Operators, along with the federal government and other industry groups, has unsuccessfully fought the law twice in the past, particularly the tugboat requirement.

Litigation against the act was closed in 2011, but the industry group sued the Coast Guard to have it reopened, arguing that federal law supersedes the state act.

Before the 2003 spill, a barge could enter the canal without a local pilot who knew the area. Now, an independent pilot is brought onboard for a barge’s transiting of the area. An additional escort tugboat is required for oil barges with over 6,000 barrels.

According to the attorney general’s office, there is evidence that the requirement, which has been in effect since 2005, has helped prevent oil spills.