16 USC 1443 - Destruction or loss of, or injury to, sanctuary resources

U.S Code last checked for updates: Nov 22, 2024

§ 1443.

Destruction or loss of, or injury to, sanctuary resources

(a)

Liability

(1)

Liability to United States

Any person who destroys, causes the loss of, or injures any sanctuary resource is liable to the United States for an amount equal to the sum of—

(A)

the amount of response costs and damages resulting from the destruction, loss, or injury; and

(B)

interest on that amount calculated in the manner described under section 2705 of title 33.

(2)

Liability in rem

(3)

Defenses

A person is not liable under this subsection if that person establishes that—

(A)

the destruction or loss of, or injury to, the sanctuary resource was caused solely by an act of God, an act of war, or an act or omission of a third party, and the person acted with due care;

(B)

the destruction, loss, or injury was caused by an activity authorized by Federal or State law; or

(C)

the destruction, loss, or injury was negligible.

(4)

Limits to liability

(b)

Response actions and damage assessment

(1)

Response actions

(2)

Damage assessment

(c)

Civil actions for response costs and damages

(1)

The Attorney General, upon request of the Secretary, may commence a civil action against any person or vessel who may be liable under subsection (a) for response costs and damages. The Secretary, acting as trustee for sanctuary resources for the United States, shall submit a request for such an action to the Attorney General whenever a person may be liable for such costs or damages.

(2)

An action under this subsection may be brought in the United States district court for any district in which—

(A)

the defendant is located, resides, or is doing business, in the case of an action against a person;

(B)

the vessel is located, in the case of an action against a vessel; or

(C)

the destruction of, loss of, or injury to a sanctuary resource occurred.

(d)

Use of recovered amounts

Response costs and damages recovered by the Secretary under this section shall be retained by the Secretary in the manner provided for in section 9607(f)(1) of title 42, and used as follows:

(1)

Response costs

Amounts recovered by the United States for costs of response actions and damage assessments under this section shall be used, as the Secretary considers appropriate—

(A)

to reimburse the Secretary or any other Federal or State agency that conducted those activities; and

(B)

after reimbursement of such costs, to restore, replace, or acquire the equivalent of any sanctuary resource.

(2)

Other amounts

All other amounts recovered shall be used, in order of priority—

(A)

to restore, replace, or acquire the equivalent of the sanctuary resources that were the subject of the action, including for costs of monitoring and the costs of curation and conservation of archeological, historical, and cultural sanctuary resources;

(B)

to restore degraded sanctuary resources of the national marine sanctuary that was the subject of the action, giving priority to sanctuary resources and habitats that are comparable to the sanctuary resources that were the subject of the action; and

(C)

to restore degraded sanctuary resources of other national marine sanctuaries.

(3)

Federal-State coordination

(e)

Statute of limitations

(Pub. L. 92–532, title III, § 312, as added Pub. L. 100–627, title II, § 204(a), Nov. 7, 1988, 102 Stat. 3215; amended Pub. L. 102–587, title II, §§ 2107(d), 2110, Nov. 4, 1992, 106 Stat. 5044, 5045; Pub. L. 104–283, § 9(e), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3367; Pub. L. 106–513, §§ 13, 19(c), Nov. 13, 2000, 114 Stat. 2389, 2393.)

cite as: 16 USC 1443