17th District Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard

Date: June 21, 2006
Contact: Petty Officer Sara Francis
(907) 271-2660

After 4 p.m. Alaska Standard Time, (907) 463-2000

Press Release

Coast Guard enforcing drug and alcohol testing rule changes
Coast Guard District Seventeen employs non-enforcement education period

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The U.S. Coast Guard Seventeenth District is employing a 90-day non-enforcement and education period for changes to the Coast Guard requirements for alcohol and drug testing after a serious marine incident (SMI). The 90-day period will allow the operators of most commercial vessels time to adapt to the regulation changes and be in compliance.

A SMI is defined as a casualty resulting in one or more deaths, an injury that renders a crewmember unfit to perform vessel duties, damage to property in excess of $100,000, the loss of any inspected commercial vessel or an uninspected vessel over 100 gross tons, a discharge of 10,000 gallons or more of oil, and the release of a reportable quantity of hazardous materials into the navigable waters of the United States.

These regulation changes, announced in the Federal Register of December 20, 2005, are effective June 20, 2006, and require marine employers to insure that their employees involved in an SMI are tested for alcohol use within two hours of the incident. Similarly, mariners involved in an SMI are required to be drug tested within 32 hours. Most commercial vessels will need to carry alcohol testing devices in order to comply with the two-hour deadline.

Drug and alcohol testing following a SMI has been required since 1998. The changes in the regulations address the time period in which the testing must be done. The main purpose of the testing is to tell Coast Guard investigators if drugs or alcohol was present and may have been a contributing factor in the incident.

"We want to know what the condition of the crew was as close to the time of the incident as possible," said Stephen Murphy, Coast Guard Sector Anchorage Drug and Alcohol Program Inspector. "The best way to do that is for the marine employer/operator to be able to test their own crew for alcohol and get the crew tested for drugs with in 32 hours at a DOT approved testing facility."

The Coast Guard is a federal law enforcement agency and the lead marine incident response agency. Drug and alcohol testing is a facet of the overall investigation process. Compiling the most thorough and accurate data allows investigators to draw the most clear picture of the incident and its cause. Understanding what causes marine incidents helps the Coast Guard and industry officials to take steps to prevent future incidents.

The amendment affects 184,000 domestic vessels nationwide.