Tankers and other liquid-carrying ships calling at New Jersey ports will soon have to carry increased insurance against the chance they spill cargo, as happened Thanksgiving weekend in 2004, when a tanker ripped open in the Delaware River and fouled vast estuaries, especially in South Jersey. The Cypriot-flagged tanker Athos I spilled its gooey cargo as it approached the Venezuelan-owned CITGO terminal at Paulsboro. That came at a time when New Jersey required vessel operators to carry cleanup insurance of only $150 per gross ton of product spilled, based on a 1976 law. Now with the new measure becoming effective on February 28, the state demands operators carry policies insuring up to $1,200 per gross ton. That is the amount they could pay for each ton that may be spilled. The new law encountered little opposition when lawmakers passed it last year, by votes of 38-0 in the Senate and 74-3 in the Assembly.
(Source: Cherry Hill Courier Post)