ABSTRACT
Background to the National Contingency Plan The ‘‘polluter pays’’ concept in the US applies not only to liability and damages resulting from a pollution incident, but also to the response and removal activities following a spill of oil or release of a hazardous substance. The federal government, however, maintains an active role in the direction and oversight of the response, and may take over the clean-up if the responsible party’s efforts prove to be unsatisfactory. One commentator has suggested that this concept was first set forth in an internal Coast Guard directive of 3 November 1964 which proposed that ‘‘the Oil Pollution Act of 1924 be amended to provide, among other things, that the Secretary of the Army may order any owner or person who has violated the Act to remove such oil pollution or to abate it. If there is a failure to comply with the order, the Secretary may, at his discretion, remove such pollution or abate it.’’1 A 1966 amendment to the Oil Pollution Act of 1924 required any person spilling oil from a vessel into the navigable waters of the United States to remove the oil immediately, failing which the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to arrange for the removal, and the spiller would be liable for all costs and expenses reasonably incurred by the Secretary in accomplishing the removal.2 This provision was never the subject of serious enforcement.
