MARINE ENGINEERS' BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION (AFL-CIO)
         "On Watch in Peace and War Since 1875"

MEBA TELEX TIMES       JANUARY 02, 2009

The Official Union Newsletter

NUMBER 1

In this issue...
Pension bill signed...CG rule on pollution response for oil tankers...EIS Intent on Great Lakes discharges...We put our house in order and do a good deed as we close on a title-holding issue with all the amenities. Don't mortgage your future with rent-raising, lessor newsletters that lead to buyers remorse! We foreclose on those slumlords and put a down payment on an affordable, high-interest issue that'll make you feel at home. The Telex Times gives you a new lease on life!

WORKER, RETIREE, & EMPLOYER RECOVERY ACT SIGNED INTO LAW
Last week President Bush signed into law the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, a bill that recently cleared the House and Senate in unanimous fashion. The new tax law temporarily suspends the requirement for taxpayers age 70 ½ and older (and their beneficiaries) to make annual minimum distributions from their retirement plan accounts. This will provide older Americans some much-needed financial flexibility as they struggle to manage their finances during this difficult economic time.

According to Bob Trinz, Senior Tax Analyst for the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters, tax laws generally require individuals with retirement accounts to make required withdrawals based on the size of their account and their age every year after age 70 ½. The new law suspends the required minimum distribution from retirement accounts in 2009. This waiver, available to everyone regardless of their total retirement account balances, applies to all defined-contribution plans, including 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and IRA accounts. Suspending the mandatory withdrawal allows retirees to keep the money in their account if they choose, and possibly recover some losses. The suspension for 2009 also applies to beneficiaries of retirement plan accounts and IRA owners.

The new law also provides relief for single-employer plans by allowing employers to "smooth" the value of pension plan assets over 24 months instead of having to apply the mathematical average that Treasury requires. This change will soften the accounting of 2008 plan losses. "The adjustment of this phase-in rule will provide great relief," says Trinz.

The new law also helps multiemployer plans, which may elect to "freeze" their status as (or as not) "endangered" or "critical" for one year. Plan years that started between October 1, 2008 and October 1, 2009 may elect to retain their status from the previous year. As before the new law, plans in endangered or critical status must adopt a funding improvement or rehabilitation plan, respectively. While a plan is in critical status, employers obligated to contribute must make additional contributions not required for plans in endangered status, but are relieved from the obligation to make general funding contributions. Under the new law, the election to freeze a plan's status would delay the need to respond to any lack of progress under the terms of the funding improvement or rehabilitation plan until the following plan year.

The new law also provides an election for sponsors of multiemployer plans in endangered or critical status in plan years beginning in 2008 or 2009, allowing a three-year extension of a funding improvement or rehabilitation plan. That allows these plans to accomplish their goals in 13 years instead of 10 (18 years instead of 15, for seriously endangered plans).

The new law makes numerous technical corrections to the Pension Protection Act of 2006. "The technical modification of greatest interest is for non-spouse beneficiaries of qualified plan participants and IRA owners," says Trinz. "For plan years beginning after 2009, company sponsored plans will have to offer non-spouse beneficiaries a rollover option. This gives much-needed flexibility to those who inherit retirement plan accounts from someone other than their spouse."

"The extent of the technicalities and scope of this new law is far-reaching and taxpayers should contact their tax preparers to ascertain how it will affect them in the long and short-term," says Trinz. "For our seniors, we can conclusively say: 'this will help.'"

MARAD ANTI-PIRACY WEBSITE
The Maritime Administration has consolidated its past news releases concerning piracy and plans to keep updating a new web area, accessed from the MarAd homepage, with related news and advisories as they happen. With the piracy scourge making national headlines and the activity in the Gulf of Aden, Malacca Straits and other hotspots continuing unabated, the agency decided to create a one-stop shop for piracy news from MarAd's vantage point.

You can visit it on the web at: www.marad.dot.gov/news_room_landing_page/horn_of_ africa_piracy/horn_of_africa_piracy.htm

COAST GUARD TWEAKS SALVAGE/FIREFIGHTING RESPONSE PLANS FOR OIL TANKERS
The U.S. Coast Guard has announced the publication of a final rule designed to increase pollution response preparedness aboard tank vessels carrying oil on U.S. waters. The agency is amending the vessel response plan salvage and marine firefighting requirements for tank vessels that carry Groups I-IV oils as cargo or cargo residue. These revisions clarify the salvage and marine firefighting services that must be identified in vessel response plans and set new response time requirements for each of the required salvage and marine firefighting services. The changes ensure that the appropriate salvage and marine firefighting resources are identified and available for responding to incidents up to and including the worst case discharge scenario.

The Coast Guard is welcoming review of the final rule and its supporting documents, which may be found on the docket at http://www.regulations.gov, docket number: USCG-1998-3417. If you have questions on the rule, or on the Vessel Response Plan Program, contact Lieutenant Commander Ryan Allain at (202) 3721226 or Ryan.D.Allain@uscg.mil.  If you have questions on viewing the docket, call Ms. Renee V. Wright, Program Manager, Docket Operations at (202) 3669826.

MARAD PORT FINANCE STUDY RELEASED
The Maritime Administration has released its new Public Port Finance Survey FY 2006. This report is the only one of its kind in the port industry that covers U.S. and Canadian ports. It contains financial data on maritime activities at ports, including the income statement, balance sheet, outstanding bonds, debt service, sales offices, and cargo tonnage. In addition, there are two sections that cover (1) data on contributions, donations, and grants received in fiscal year 2006, and (2) ratio analyses. It can be downloaded from the MarAd website at www.marad.dot.gov/ports_landing_page/infra_dev_congestion_mitigation/port_finance/port_finance_reports/Port_Fin_Rpts.htm. 

CAPTAIN OF KOREAN-FLAG SHIP GROUNDED AFTER MAKING A MESS
54-year old Hae Wan Yang of South Korea, has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to two months of home confinement in the U.S. and two years of supervised release for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. While Yang was the Captain of the bulk carrier M/V PAN VOYAGER, a ship belonging to STX Pan Ocean Co., Ltd., a South Korean Shipping Company, he knowingly failed to maintain an accurate Garbage Record Book. The inaccuracy was a failure to record a dumping incident during which approximately six 55-gallon drums, thirty plastic lined rice sacks, and approximately two hundred garbage bags containing oil contaminated grain were thrown into the ocean during a voyage from Korea to Longview, Washington. In October 2008, the shipping company pleaded guilty and paid a $500,000 fine, and made a $250,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for use in projects to restore Puget Sound. The company also agreed to a stringent environmental compliance plan with outside auditing.

Yang has been detained in the United States since August. Judge Benjamin Settle said he would have sent Yang to prison, but for a life threatening health condition. The judge opted for detention in a U.S. residence so that he could seek medical care, before he is allowed to return to his home country.

In July 2008, the ship was in South Korea unloading grain when crew members discovered a hole in one of the vents leading to a fuel oil tank. A substantial amount of grain spilled into the hole, entered the tank, and contaminated the fuel oil. Captain Yang and other senior officers on the vessel subsequently ordered lower level crew members into the tank to remove the contaminated grain. Crew members used buckets and dust pans to remove the grain/fuel oil waste and dump it into the drums, plastic lined rice sacks, and large plastic garbage bags. On July 24, 2008, the crew used one of the vessels cargo cranes to lift the drums, sacks and bags onto the main deck. Working under the cover of darkness, using only flashlights because Captain Yang refused to turn on the deck lights, crew members dumped the waste overboard. The plastic bags and rice-sacks were punctured in hopes that they would sink and further reduce the risk of detection. Captain Yang was on the bridge and wing of the ship during the dumping and observed the activity. Coast Guard inspectors discovered that a section of the deck railing had been cut away and then welded back into place to facilitate the illegal dumping. When the ship arrived in Longview, two whistle blowers provided information related to the dumping. Investigators with the United States Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency boarded the vessel and discovered evidence corroborating the whistle blowers information. They observed large streaks of oil alongside the outer hull of the ship where the waste was tossed into the sea. The Garbage Record Book made no reference to the dumping. The book was presented to the Coast Guard by the senior officers, knowing that it was false. While investigators were on the ship Captain Yang encouraged other crew members to lie about the amount of waste dumped at sea.

OLDER ANALOG EPIRBs PHASED OUT
The Coast Guard is urging mariners and aviators to start the year off right and make the switch to a digital emergency beacon. Beginning Feb. 1, 2009, the Coast Guard and other search and rescue personnel will only receive distress alerts broadcast using digital 406 MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons. Search and rescue satellites will no longer process older model analog EPIRBs that only transmit on 121.5 or 243 MHz.

Because satellites will no longer receive analog transmissions, Rescue Coordination Centers will no longer receive transmissions from 121.5 EPIRBs, said Rick Arsenault, a search and rescue specialist at the First Coast Guard District Command Center in Boston. The 406 EPIRBs signal is 50 times more powerful than the 121.5 beacon's, allowing satellites to better detect its signal and provide a more accurate search area for rescue crews.

With 121.5 beacons, an initial position uncertainty can result in a 500 square mile search area, Arsenault said. With a digital beacon, that initial search is reduced to 25 square miles. Furthermore, a GPS-embedded 406 EPIRB can shrink a search area to about 100 yards and can also pinpoint the position of a distressed mariner within minutes.

Additionally, the number of false alerts with digital beacons is significantly lower than analog beacons. Satellites are not capable of distinguishing between beacon and non-beacon sources using analog frequencies, making only about one in five alerts actually coming from a beacon. Many false alert signals come from ATMs, pizza ovens and stadium scoreboards.

With analog beacons, the only way to determine if an alert is an actual emergency is to send rescue crews to the area, which costs thousands of dollars, takes resources away from actual emergencies and puts the lives of responders at risk needlessly. EPIRB owners are required by law to provide emergency contact information and a vessel description by registering their beacons with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This lets search and rescue personnel quickly confirm if a distress signal is real, and identify who and what type of boat or aircraft to look for. It also means accidental activation of an EPIRB may be resolved quickly with a phone call to the owner.

EPIRB registration needs to be accurate, complete and current, Arsenault said. When buying a used beacon, the new owner needs to register it with the new information. Otherwise we may be looking for the wrong boat and contact the wrong person if we receive a distress signal from the EPIRB, said Arsenault.

EPIRB users can register their beacons in the U.S. 406 MHz Beacon Registration Database at: http://www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov/ or by calling 1-888-212-SAVE. Beacon registrations must also be updated at least every two years or when information such as emergency contact phone numbers and other vital information changes. Registration information is only available to authorized search and rescue personnel.

COAST GUARD E.I.S. ON GREAT LAKES DRY CARGO RESIDUE DISCHARGES
The U.S. Coast Guard has announced its intent to prepare a new environmental impact statement and to hold a public scoping meeting in support of the next phase of rulemaking for dry cargo residue discharges in the Great Lakes.

The new environmental impact statement stems from the first EIS, which was prepared in support of the interim rule published in September 2008. Under the interim rule, the discharge of bulk dry cargo residue is allowed to continue in limited areas of the Great Lakes and under certain conditions. The Coast Guard plans to issue a final rule that may modify the interim rule and add new conditions for discharges.

The public scoping meeting, designed to solicit public comment and to help determine the scope of issues to be addressed in the new environmental impact statement, is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2009, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Hotel Blake, 500 South Dearborn, Chicago, Ill. To view the notice of intent online, go to www.regulations.gov.  Once on the site, go to "search documents" and enter USCG-2004-19621.

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETINGS
Monday, January 5 Boston, Jacksonville, Seattle;
Tuesday, January 6 Baltimore, Houston, San Francisco;
Wednesday, January 7 Charleston, New Orleans, Portland;
Thursday, January 8 L.A., New York, Norfolk, Tampa;
Friday, January 9 Honolulu.

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