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NEW DELHI: The Centre has, for the first time, come out with dedicated rules to manage tar balls – weathered product of oil spills due to offshore oil exploration activities, oil tanker/ ship/ vessel accidents or pipeline leakages that cause marine pollution – and proposed mandatory provisions for owner of oil facilities for its collection, transport and disposal in an environmentally safe manner.Tar balls cause both on-shore and off-shore marine pollution, threatening the existence of shorebirds, sea turtles and marine life. Tar balls invariably affect beaches in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Karnataka as it wash ashore specifically during the monsoon due to strong winds and currents.The environment ministry that notified a draft rules in this regard last week also made provisions of penalty (environmental compensation) for defaulter ‘oil facility owners’ on polluter pays principle, and assigned specific responsibilities to state governments, ministry of petroleum and natural gas, CPCB and ministry of defence (Indian Coast Guard) for environmentally sound management of tar balls.The ‘oil facility owners’ in the rules are described as those persons or companies who own or control or operate a facility/ ship/ vessel where oil (crude or fuel or both ) is extracted, explored, used, transported or handled.Notifying the draft rules, called the Tar-balls Management Rules, 2026, the ministry sought stakeholders’ comments/ suggestions on the proposal within the next sixty days. Final rules will be notified after examining the suggestions, if any. “They (rules) shall come into force after one year from the date of publication of final notification in the Official Gazette,” said the ministry in its draft proposal.Underlining penalty provisions, it said, “Where any oil facility owner fails to manage oil in an environmentally sound manner and lead to any oil spill thereby causing loss, damage or injury to environment or public health including formation of tar balls, it shall be liable to pay environmental compensation which may be equal to such loss, damage or injury and expenditure incurred or to be incurred by district administration towards management of tar balls.”Assigning responsibilities to the Indian Coast Guard, the rules noted that the defence ministry’s body will implement National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP) to effectively manage oil spill management and tar balls formation.“The Indian Coast Guard shall undertake regular aerial and surface surveillance for oil spill in Indian EEZ and inform relevant stakeholders for necessary preparedness and response measures,” said the draft rules.Besides, the National Remote Sensing Agency will conduct surveillance and detection of oil-spills incidences and tar balls hot-spots through satellite, aerial, drones, sensor-equipped buoys, or by any other means, and will support the combat agencies.According to the rules, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas through its offshore installations will have to provide quarterly oil leakage or spill incident reports of every installation (up to 500 meters) to Indian Coast Guard, nearby Coastal state governments, the concerned State Pollution Control Boards and the CPCB.“Ministry of Petroleum and natural gas shall take all preventive steps to control oil spill from offshore oil exploration installations/facilities,” said the draft notification.
