Texas Administrative Code › Title 31 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION › Part 1 - GENERAL LAND OFFICE › Chapter 20 - NATURAL RESOURCES DAMAGE ASSESSMENT › Subchapter A - GENERAL PROVISIONS › Section 20.10 - Definitions

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this
					 chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly
					 indicates otherwise.
(1) Acquisition
				  of equivalent--The acquisition of a natural resource that provides services
				  substantially equivalent to those injured as the result of an unauthorized
				  discharge of oil.
(2) Area
				  Contingency Plan--The contingency plan required by the Federal Water Pollution
				  Control Act (33 United States Code Annotated §1321(j)(4)).
(3) Assessment or natural resource damage
				  assessment--The process of collecting, compiling and analyzing information
				  through prescribed procedures and protocols to determine damages for injuries
				  to natural resources and any loss in the services provided by the natural
				  resources resulting from an unauthorized discharge of oil.
(4) Assessment area--The area or areas within
				  which natural resources and the services they provide have been affected
				  directly or indirectly by the unauthorized discharge of oil.
(5) Center--The Center for Public Policy
				  Dispute Resolution and any successor entity established by the University of
				  Texas providing statewide assistance and expertise to government agencies and
				  courts for the design and implementation of alternative dispute resolution
				  processes.
(6) Coastal Protection
				  Fund (CPF)--The fund established by the OSPRA, §40.151.
(7) Coastal waters--The waters and bed of the
				  Gulf of Mexico within the jurisdiction of the State of Texas, including the
				  arms of the Gulf of Mexico subject to tidal influence, and any other waters
				  contiguous thereto that are navigable by vessels with a capacity to carry
				  10,000 gallons or more of oil as fuel or cargo and as further defined in §
										19.2(a)(1)
				  of this title (relating to Definitions).
(8) Commissioner--The commissioner of the
				  Texas General Land Office.
(9)
				  Comprehensive damage assessment--A method including sampling, modeling, and
				  other appropriate scientific procedures to make a reasonable and rational
				  determination of injury to natural resources resulting from an unauthorized
				  discharge of oil.
(10)
				  Cost-effective--When two or more activities provide the same or a similar level
				  of benefits, the one which costs the least is cost-effective.
(11) Damages--With respect to natural
				  resources, includes the cost to assess, restore, rehabilitate, replace and/or
				  acquire the equivalent of injured natural resources, or to mitigate further
				  injury, and their diminution in value after such restoration, rehabilitation,
				  replacement, or mitigation.
(12)
				  Discharge of oil--An intentional or unintentional act or omission by which
				  harmful quantities of oil are spilled, leaked, pumped, poured, emitted, or
				  dumped into or on coastal waters or at a place adjacent to coastal waters
				  where, unless controlled or removed, an imminent threat of pollution to coastal
				  waters exists.
(13) Ecological
				  services--The services provided by natural resources to each other and
				  includes, but is not limited to, water purification, flood control, erosion
				  control, shelter, food supply, and reproductive habitats.
(14) Expedited damage assessment--A method
				  selected by the state trustees that allows for prompt initiation of
				  restoration, replacement, rehabilitation, and/or acquisition of an equivalent
				  natural resource without lengthy analysis of the impact on affected natural
				  resources and which may utilize limited, focused field and/or laboratory
				  studies related to injured natural resources.
(15) Exposure--When all or part of a natural
				  resource is or may be in physical contact with oil or with media containing oil
				  or its degradation products.
(16)
				  Federal fund--The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund established by the Internal
				  Revenue Code of 1986,
				  26 United States Code
				  §9509.
(17) Federal trustee--Officials of the
				  federal government designated, according to OPA, §2706(b)(2), as trustees
				  and also includes, for the purposes of the rules, Indian tribes and foreign
				  governments which may present a claim for and recover damages for injury to
				  natural resources.
(18) Field
				  investigation--An evaluation of the area impacted by an unauthorized discharge
				  of oil to determine the actual and potential exposure of natural resources and
				  the impact on natural resources and the services they provide for the purpose
				  of evaluating which damage assessment methods, if any, should be utilized by
				  state trustees.
(19) Harmful
				  quantity--A quantity of oil that has created a sheen or film on coastal waters
				  or that has been deposited as a sludge or emulsion in, on or under coastal
				  waters.
(20) Incident--Any
				  unauthorized discharge of oil or series of unauthorized discharges of oil
				  having the same origin, involving one or more vessels, facilities, or any
				  combination thereof.
(21)
				  Injury--Any measurable adverse change, either long or short term, in the
				  chemical or physical quality or the viability of a natural resource or any loss
				  of a service provided by that resource resulting either directly or indirectly
				  from exposure to an unauthorized discharge of oil.
(22) Lead administrative trustee--The state
				  trustee responsible for compiling the assessment record and for coordinating
				  activities of the state in the natural resource damage assessment
				  process.
(23) Limited observable
				  mortality--A determination that, in the best professional judgment of the state
				  trustees, the mortality of natural resources from exposure to oil is not
				  extensive or severe.
(24) Loss--A
				  measurable adverse reduction in the chemical or physical quality or the
				  viability of a natural resource or a reduction in a service provided by a
				  natural resource resulting either directly or indirectly from exposure to an
				  unauthorized discharge of oil.
(25)
				  Mediation--The process defined in the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
				  §
										154.023.
(26) National Contingency Plan--The federal
				  regulations for response to oil spills and releases of hazardous substances,
				  published at the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Part 300.
(27) Natural recovery--The process through
				  which injured resources and their services recover, without additional human
				  intervention.
(28) Natural
				  resources--All land, fish, shellfish, fowl, wildlife, biota, vegetation, air,
				  water, groundwater, and other similar resources owned, managed, held in trust,
				  regulated, or otherwise controlled by the State of Texas.
(29) Negotiated assessment--Any assessment
				  method agreed to by the state trustees and the responsible person.
(30) Oil--Oil of any kind or in any form,
				  including but not limited to crude oil, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil
				  refuse, and oil mixed with wastes other than dredged spoil, but does not
				  include petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof, which is
				  specifically listed or designated as a hazardous substance under the
				  Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA),
				  42 United States Code Annotated §9601(14)(A) - (F), and which is subject
				  to the provisions of that Act.
(31)
				  OSPRA--The Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, Texas Natural Resources Code,
				  Chapter 40.
(32) OPA--The Oil
				  Pollution Act of 1990, 33 United States Code Annotated §2701 et
				  seq.
(33) Passive use values--The
				  values a person places on natural resources which are not derived from direct
				  use of those resources. These values include the value derived from: the
				  knowledge of the existence of the resource and its protection; the availability
				  of the resource for the use of a person, a person's family and other members of
				  the public; and the knowledge that the resources will be available for future
				  generations.
(34) Pathway--Any
				  physical, biological or chemical link that connects a natural resource to an
				  unauthorized discharge of oil.
(35)
				  Pre-discharge condition--The condition or conditions of the natural resources
				  and the level of services provided by those resources before the unauthorized
				  discharge of oil. Pre-discharge condition may be measured by use of a reference
				  area or a reference resource or by analysis of historical data.
(36) Properties of oil--The persistence,
				  degradability, dispersability, toxicity, bioaccumulative effects, and any other
				  characteristics relevant to a particular unauthorized discharge of
				  oil.
(37) Public use--The services
				  provided by natural resources for human activities; this includes, but is not
				  limited to, cultural, archaeological, transportation, public water supply,
				  industrial water supply, swimming, fishing, harvesting of natural resources,
				  nature viewing, hunting, diving, sailing, boating, hiking, camping, climbing,
				  photographing, drawing, painting, and other human activities.
(38) Recovery--The return of the injured
				  natural resource and service to its pre-discharge or comparable condition
				  within the constraints of natural or other variability.
(39) Reference area or reference resource--An
				  area or natural resource, unaffected by the relevant unauthorized discharge of
				  oil, and comparable in physical, chemical and biological characteristics or in
				  the level of services provided by the assessment area or natural
				  resource.
(40)
				  Rehabilitation--Those actions which enhance the recovery of injured natural
				  resources but do not return them to pre-discharge conditions.
(41) Replacement--Substituting natural
				  resources at or near the impacted area to compensate for the loss of natural
				  resources due to an unauthorized discharge of oil.
(42) Responsible person--
(A) the owner or operator of a vessel or
				  facility from which an unauthorized discharge of oil emanates or threatens to
				  emanate; and
(B) in the case of an
				  abandoned vessel or facility, the person who would have been responsible
				  immediately prior to the abandonment; and
(C) any other person who causes, allows or
				  permits an unauthorized discharge of oil or threatened unauthorized discharge
				  of oil.