The Maritime Administration caused something of a stir recently, offering a contract to “study the safety, economic and environmental issues of vessels to be constructed with double hulls.”
MARAD is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation dealing with shipping and ports.
In a contractor solicitation posted Aug. 6 on FedBizOpps.gov, MARAD provided this background statement:
“Following the Exxon Valdez disaster, the passing of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) led to the requirement to replace single hull petroleum tankers with double hull tank vessels sailing in U.S. waters. This requirement was soon adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and became a worldwide regulation. This means that, today, tank vessels worldwide are carrying thousands of extra tons of steel in order to meet the double hull requirements.
“Though these double hulls reduce the threat of oil pollution as a result of grounding, they significantly increase the amount of energy needed to propel a vessel and increase the amount of air pollution into the atmosphere. As a result, the maritime industry’s carbon footprint and ... pollutant emissions are increased.
“In addition to the need to burn more fuel, it is acknowledged that double hulls can cause several other problems which will be detailed in this study.”
Those other problems, according to a “statement of work” MARAD posted with the contractor solicitation, include the extra construction cost for double-hull vessels, and the loss of cargo space.
The work statement added: “Double bottoms are difficult and expensive to maintain and can result in corrosion problems. Unchecked corrosion in older double hull vessels can lead to cargo leakage into a double bottom and the buildup of dangerous vapor which could cause an explosion under certain conditions.”
The contractor was to have a year to complete the study.
On Sept. 7, however, MARAD announced: “This solicitation is being cancelled in its entirety at the convenience of the Government.” No further explanation was given.
The whole affair rippled through the U.S. shipping community, which has achieved a near total phase-out of single-hull oil tankers and tank barges.
Mike Schuler, in a Sept. 11 article on the maritime website gCaptain.com, said a study to revisit the use of double hulls more than 20 years after passage of OPA 90 was “widely opposed.” The contract offer, he wrote, “created quite the uproar, and led many to question MARAD’s use of taxpayer dollars and reasoning for such a study to be conducted in the first place.”
—Wesley Loy
