(a) The General Land Office (GLO) is required to recover expenditures from the coastal protection fund pursuant to OSPRA, §40.153 and §40.161(a), and therefore the GLO will assess response costs as delineated in this subsection.
(b) Whenever the GLO is unable to identify the person responsible for an unauthorized discharge of oil into or posing an imminent threat to coastal waters, the GLO will respond to the unauthorized discharge by initiating cleanup and other necessary response actions. Upon identification of the responsible person, the GLO will seek reimbursement for all monies expended from the coastal protection fund including, but not limited to, the following:
  (1) actual costs of engaging a contractor to conduct cleanup;
  (2) actual expenses of GLO personnel including time, transportation, lodging, and overhead;
  (3) administrative and investigative expenses incurred in identifying the responsible person, including, but not limited to:
    (A) sampling and analysis of the discharged oil and comparison samples; and
    (B) field investigative costs; and
    (C) accounting and legal costs.
(c) Whenever GLO personnel respond to the scene of an unauthorized discharge of oil that actually enters or poses an imminent threat to coastal waters, the following response costs shall be assessed against the responsible person:
  (1) actual expenses of GLO personnel including time, transportation, lodging, and overhead; and all administrative costs of preparing the assessment; or
  (2) a minimum response cost of $250.
(d) The GLO will assess response costs when:
  (1) oil enters coastal waters;
  (2) oil does not enter coastal waters but poses an imminent threat to coastal waters and a response is required to prevent the oil from entering coastal waters.
(e) The GLO will not assess response costs when:
  (1) oil enters coastal waters but GLO personnel do not spend more than two hours, excluding travel time, at the scene of the spill;
  (2) oil is spilled but does not enter or pose an imminent threat to coastal waters.
(f) The minimum response cost of $250 will be billed whenever GLO personnel are required to monitor prevention or response activities and the time spent at the spill scene, excluding travel time, is more than two hours and less than eight hours. In the event that eight or more hours of GLO response personnel time is required at the scene of the spill, the responsible party will be assessed the actual costs of response incurred by the GLO. Response costs will not be assessed where either the Railroad Commission of Texas or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is the state on-scene coordinator, unless requested by the Railroad Commission of Texas or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and approved by the commissioner.

Source Note: The provisions of this §19.55 adopted to be effective May 14, 1993, 18 TexReg 2849; amended to be effective March 6, 1995, 20 TexReg 1261; amended to be effective January 27, 2013, 38 TexReg 296