2019 Alaska Statutes
Title 46. Water, Air, Energy, and Environmental Conservation
Chapter 03. Environmental Conservation
Article 9. Prohibited Acts, Penalties, and Damages.
Sec. 46.03.715. Sale and use of TBT-based antifouling paint.

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a person may not sell or use TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating in the state, nor may a person sell, rent, or lease in the state, or import into the state, or use in state water, a vessel, fishing gear, or other item intended to be partially or completely submerged in water, if the vessel, gear, or item has been painted or treated with TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating.

(b) TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating need not be removed from fishing gear, or from a vessel or other item that was painted or treated before December 1, 1987, but the vessel, gear, or item may not be repainted or retreated with TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating. Fish culture or capture nets treated with TBT-based marine antifouling coating before December 1, 1987, may not be used in state water on or after December 1, 1992.

(c) Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, slow-leaching TBT-based marine antifouling paint may be imported into and sold in the state. A slow-leaching TBT-based marine antifouling paint may be applied in the state only to aluminum vessel hulls and lower outboard drive units. Aluminum vessel hulls and lower outboard drive units to which a slow-leaching TBT-based marine antifouling paint has been applied may be imported into and sold, rented, leased, or used in the state.

(d) If a vessel of the United States government, a foreign vessel in state water fewer than 90 consecutive days, or a vessel of 4,000 gross tons or more was painted or treated with a TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating before January 1, 2001, the paint or coating need not be removed, but the vessel may not be repainted or retreated with a TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating.

(e) In this section

(1) “slow-leaching TBT-based marine antifouling paint” means a TBT-based marine antifouling paint, but not a coating or other treatment, that has a measured release rate equal to or less than the maximum release rate established for qualified antifouling paints containing organotin by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under 33 U.S.C. 2401 - 2410 (the Organotin Antifouling Paint Control Act of 1988);

(2) “TBT-based marine antifouling paint or coating” means a paint, coating, or treatment that contains tributyltin, or a triorganotin compound used as a substitute for tributyltin, and that is intended to control fouling organisms in a fresh water or marine environment;

(3) “vessel” means watercraft used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water, including

(A) aircraft equipped to land on water; and

(B) barges.