United States Vessels Response Plans 2 December 2013 No. 13-016 Download PDF (187KB) Non-Tank   Members are referred to the previous Club circular No.13-010 dated 3 October 2013 in which it was explained that the US authorities published their Final Rule addressing Non-Tank Vessel Response Plans in the Federal Register, Vol. 78, No. 189, on 30 th September 2013, and all non-tank vessel owners are required to submit their Vessel Response Plan to the US Coast Guard by 30 th January 2014.   For the purpose of preparing a Vessel Response Plan (VRP), a non-tank vessel is defined as a self-propelled, non-tank vessel of 400 gross tons or greater that carries oil of any kind as fuel formain propulsion and that operates on the navigable waters of the United States.   Non-tank vessel owners will be required to enter into contracts with oil spill contractors with sufficient response resources and dispersant capability to deal with a worst case discharge and to enter into funding agreements with salvors and marine fire-fighting resources.  The requirements relating to salvage andmarine firefighting have been dealt with in the earlier circular No.13-011 dated 18 October 2013.   In order to satisfy the spill response requirements, non-tank vessel owners will need to contract with either one of the main oil spill response organisations, Marine Spill Response Corporation(MSRC) or National Response Corporation (NRC). In the past, most International Group (IG) Clubs entered into retainer agreements with both MSRC and NRC in order that non-tank vessel owners could cite either or both of them in their California State vessel response plans.  However, it is impractical for the IG Clubs to extend these retainer agreements to deal with the federal vessel response plan requirements and, in future, therefore, non-tank vessel owners will need tocontract with either MSRC or NRC directly. Members are recommended to liaise with their QI/plan writers who should be a