Nautical Term: OPA
Definition of OPA
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) is a United States federal law that was enacted in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in March 1989. OPA 90 expanded the types of oil spills that the United States Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency were authorized to respond to.
For instance, consider the following scenario where OPA 90 comes into play: During a routine tanker inspection, the Coast Guard discovered that the tanker had been illegally discharging oil into the Atlantic Ocean for several months. The Coast Guard immediately invoked OPA 90 and began working with the tanker’s owners to contain and clean up the oil spill.
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