Oregon Code § 783.400·Enacted ·Last updated March 01, 2026
Statute Text
Shipbreaking; shipwrecks; ship repair; definitions.
(1) As used in this section:
(a) Dry dock
means a graving dock or a floating dry dock.
(b) Floating dry
dock means a vessel or structure that can be flooded to allow a ship to be
floated in and drained to allow the ship to come to rest on a dry platform.
(c) Fouling
communities means the matrix consisting of:
(A) Native or
nonnative species attached to the hull of a ship including, but not limited to,
barnacles, bivalves, bryozoans, tunicates and seaweeds; and
(B) Native or nonnative
mobile species such as crustaceans, sea stars and worms that may be unattached
to the hull, but that inhabit a fouling community or inhabit protected recesses
and crevices in the hull, such as sea chests.
(d) Fouling
organisms means native or nonnative species that attach to the hull of a ship
including, but not limited to, sessile bottom-dwelling invertebrates, algae and
microorganisms such as bacteria and diatoms.
(e) Graving dock
means a paved excavation in the ground that can be flooded to allow a ship to
be floated in and drained to allow that ship to come to rest on a dry platform.
(f) Hazardous
materials includes, but is not limited to, asbestos, polychlorinated
biphenyls, oil, fuel, bilge and ballast water, paint and lead.
(g) Ocean shore
has the meaning given that term in ORS 390.605.
(h) Ship means
a vessel that weighs in excess of 200 gross tons and operates upon navigable
waterways.
(i) Shipbreaking
means the process of dismantling a ship for scrap or disposal.
(j) Shipwreck
means a ship that has been stranded or destroyed by being driven ashore or onto
the rocks or the shoal.
(k) Waters of
this state has the meaning given that term in ORS 196.800.
(2) In the State
of Oregon, a person:
(a) May perform
shipbreaking activities only in a dry dock.
(b) May not
perform shipbreaking activities in a manner that allows hazardous materials,
fouling communities or fouling organisms that are in or on the ship to enter
the waters of this state or the ocean shore.
(3)
Notwithstanding subsection (2) of this section, a person may in the waters of
this state:
(a) Dismantle for
removal a ship that has been shipwrecked if the Department of State Lands
determines, in consultation with others as the department finds appropriate
including, but not limited to, other state agencies, the United States Coast
Guard and the shipowner, that it is physically impracticable to move the
shipwreck to a dry dock.
(b) Partially
dismantle a ship as may be required in the process of ship repair.
(4) Subsection
(2) of this section does not apply to the shipbreaking of a flat-bottomed barge
that is not self-propelled and that operates in the waters of this state.
(5) This section
does not relieve a person from compliance with other state or local laws that
apply to shipbreaking, shipwrecks or ship repair including, but not limited to,
laws relating to hazardous materials, fouling communities or fouling organisms.
[2007 c.150 §1; 2007 c.816 §3]
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