Category Archives: oil pollution

Daily Kos: Surprise! Company whose pipeline burst in Santa Barbara has extensive record of safety violations by Meteor Blades

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/21/1386603/-Surprise-Company-whose-pipeline-burst-in-Santa-Barbara-has-extensive-record-of-safety-violations

Thu May 21, 2015 at 09:04 AM PDT

byMeteor BladesFollow

Refugio State Beach oil spill

attribution: U.S. Coast Guard
A section of Refugio State Beach tainted by oil from burst pipe.

Since 2006, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has logged more than 175 maintenance and safety violations by the company whose pipeline burst in Santa Barbara County, California, Tuesday night. That makes its rate of incidents per mile of pipe more than three times the national average, according to an analysis by the Los Angeles Times, which found only four companies with worse records. But those infractions only generated $115,600 in fines against the company, Plains All American Pipeline, even though the incidents caused more than $23 million in damage.It was initially reported that 500 barrels of oil had leaked from the broken pipe, but authorities later said the total could be in the realm of 2,500 barrels, 105,000 gallons. The leak contaminated a portion of Refugio State Beach and nearby patches of ocean. A crew from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is handling clean-up on land, while the U.S. Coast Guard is handling the job on the water.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state emergency, a move which frees up emergency state money and resources for the cleanup. Authorities shut down both Refugio and El Capitan beaches, but most people camping in the popular area had already fled because of fumes from the leak. Camping reservations have been canceled through May 28.

Julie Cart, Jack Dolan and Doug Smith report:

The company, which transports and stores crude oil, is part of Plains All American Pipeline, which owns and operates nearly 18,000 miles of pipe networks in several states. It reported $43 billion in revenue in 2014 and $878 million in profit.The company’s infractions involved pump failure, equipment malfunction, pipeline corrosion and operator error. None of the incidents resulted in injuries. According to federal records, since 2006 the company’s incidents caused more than $23 million in property damage and spilled more than 688,000 gallons of hazardous liquid. […]

Plains Pipeline has also been cited for failing to install equipment to prevent pipe corrosion, failing to prove it had completed repairs recommended by inspectors and failing to keep records showing inspections of “breakout tanks,” used to ease pressure surges in pipelines.

The area tainted by the leak is popular for camping, fishing, surfing, kayaking and watching seals, sea lions and numerous species of birds. Until 2013, the state was responsible for monitoring and inspecting some 2,000 of the 6,000 miles of pipelines in California, but that task was then turned over the federal Department of Transportation.The company has expressed its regrets for the leak. Perhaps it would regret the situation more if fines for its repeated violations did more than empty out the petty cash drawer for the weekend

Decomworld: BOP leak causes 25-day halt for Sevan Drilling in Gulf of Mexico

http://social.decomworld.com/projects-and-technologies/bop-leak-causes-25-day-halt-sevan-drilling-gulf-mexico?utm_source=http%3a%2f%2fus.decomworld.com%2ffc_nei_decomlz%2f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Decomworld+e-brief+2008&utm_term=DecomWorld+e-brief&utm_content=236075&gator_td=oVY2Um4dikhcF1X%2fN2G0dV5aOTy6vjkJlKMMaKMZdRZ74ohSjjcH4Dq0rSGiH8lDDsuL8OSl2e%2bfBOnmsevPLrIQr0F25i5an1p%2fKqwgSGzocE%2frvWRUQD9Zi8Q9nnYqIADt3gThoCCzaPrfoYWAH2Hwm1zXciJGNY6dtWSWiZIT2ZzOIclvqmB41k%2fs%2biMbKS%2fFu4RBJ4JRukWzR2sSRUjjUVyPQBHdF%2fU3kMO%2f1hUknGJQnvDYM620Gq5APavo#sthash.ehSISEnu.dpuf

 August 27, 2014
Ultra deepwater drilling specialist Sevan Drilling has announced a 25-day suspension of operations at a well in the Gulf of Mexico following a BOP control system leak.
In order to repair the leak it was necessary to temporarily suspend the well and recover the upper section of the BOP to the surface, the company said in a statement.
The incident occurred at the beginning of August and will result in downtime of more than 25 days in the third quarter, it added.
The firm’s rig, the Sevan Louisiana, began a three-year, $585.5m drilling contract in May this year for LLOG Bluewater Holdings LLC.
Headquartered in Norway, Sevan Drilling owns three ultra deepwater drilling units, Sevan Driller, Sevan Brasil, and Sevan Louisiana. Sevan Driller and Sevan Brasil each have a six-year charter contract with Petrobras in Brazil.
A fourth rig, the Sevan Developer, is under construction.

ExxonMobil Pipeline Company to Pay Civil Penalty Under Proposed Settlement for Torbert, Louisiana Oil Spill

Contact:
Jennifer Colaizzi (News Media only)
jennifer.colaizzi@epa.gov
(202) 564-7776

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 26, 2014
Settlement Resolves Clean Water Act Violation Stemming from 2012 Spill

WASHINGTON — ExxonMobil Pipeline Company (ExxonMobil) has agreed to pay a civil penalty for an alleged violation of the Clean Water Act stemming from a 2012 crude oil spill from ExxonMobil’s “North Line” pipeline near Torbert, Louisiana, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.  Under the consent decree lodged today in federal court, ExxonMobil will pay $1,437,120 to resolve the government’s claim.

The United States’ complaint, which was also filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, alleges that ExxonMobil discharged at least 2,800 barrels (or 117,000 gallons) of crude oil in violation of Section 311 of the Clean Water Act.  On April 28, 2012, ExxonMobil’s 20/22-inch-diamater pipeline ruptured near Torbert, about 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, and crude oil spilled into the surrounding area and flowed into an unnamed tributary connected to Bayou Cholpe.

“All businesses have an obligation to protect their workers, the local community and the environment in which they operate,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at EPA. “EPA is committed to protecting communities by enforcing laws that reduce pollution in local waterways.”

“Oil spills into our nation’s waters endanger public health and the environment and warrant concerted enforcement efforts,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “Today’s settlement achieves a just result and furthers our enforcement mission.”

The $1.4 million penalty is in addition to the costs incurred by ExxonMobil to respond to the oil spill and to replace the segment of ruptured pipeline.  ExxonMobil is completing cleanup actions pursuant to an administrative order issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.  The company also continues to do follow-up work and to operate under a Corrective Action Order issued by the United States Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The Clean Water Act makes it unlawful to discharge oil or hazardous substances into or upon the navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines in quantities that may be harmful to the environment or public health.  The penalty paid for this spill will be deposited in the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund managed by the National Pollution Fund Center.  The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is used to pay for federal response activities and to compensate for damages when there is a discharge or substantial threat of discharge of oil or hazardous substances to waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines.

The proposed consent decree, lodged in the Middle District of Louisiana, is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court review and approval.  A copy of the consent decree is available on the Department of Justice website atwww.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

R195

CSMonitor.com: Oil spill damage to Gulf was deeper, wider than thought, say scientists , Oil spill: Scientists have discovered four coral communities deep in the ocean that show signs of damage from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Science
 
 
By Elizabeth Palermo, Live Science Staff Writer August 4, 2014
Four years after a BP oil rig exploded and flooded the Gulf of Mexico with an estimated 170 million gallons of oil, scientists have discovered further evidence of coral communities affected by this environmental disaster.
Scientists at Pennsylvania State University, in State College, Pa., found coral communities that show signs of damage from 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the disaster site. The new findings suggest that the oil spill’s footprint is both deeper and wider than was previously thought.
“This study very clearly shows that multiple coral communities, up to 22 kilometers [13.7 miles] from the spill site and at depths over 1,800 meters [5,905 feet], were impacted by the spill,” Charles Fischer, a professor of biology at Penn State and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
To locate additional coral communities that may have been affected by the spill, Fischer and his team used 3D seismic data from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. They identified 488 potential coral habitats within a 25-mile (40 km) radius of the spill site, and from that list selected 29 sites that may have been impacted by the 2010 disaster. [Images of Coral Damaged by Deepwater Horizon Spill]
Using a specially designed digital camera, called a tow system, as well as a robotic submarine, the researchers captured underwater images of the ocean floor. Where coral sites were found, the team used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to collect high-resolution images of the corals.
The researchers then compared images of new coral communities with previously collected data of a coral community affected by the 2010 spill. These older coral images served as a model “fingerprint” for gauging the impact of the spill on newly discovered coral.
“With the camera on board the ROV we were able to collect beautiful, high-resolution images of the corals,” Fischer said. “When we compared these images with our examples of known oil damage, all the signs were present providing clear evidence in two of the newly discovered coral communities of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill.”
Unlike other organisms whose remains sink to the ocean floor and quickly disappear, corals form a mineralized skeleton that can last for years after the organisms die, according to the researchers.
“One of the keys to coral’s usefulness as an indicator species is that the coral skeleton retains evidence of the damage long after the oil that caused the damage is gone,” Fischer said.
In their search for coral communities affected by the 2010 oil spill, the researchers also found two coral sites entangled with commercial fishing lines. This discovery serves as a reminder that, in addition to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, marine species in the Gulf of Mexico continue to be harmed by a wide range of human activities, the researchers said.
The study was published online July 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Follow Elizabeth Palermo on Twitter @techEpalermo
Facebook or Google+. Follow Live Science@livescience
. We’re also on Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Special thanks to Richard Charter

Pensacola News Journal: BP oil spill dispersants still in environment

video at:
Despite claims by BP and government agencies, dispersants have not evaporated
 
Marine biologist Heather Reed describes the arrival of oil on our local coastlines.
By Kimberly Blair kblair@pnj.com 6:34 p.m. CDT July 26, 2014
(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com )
 
A common ingredient in human laxatives and in the controversial dispersants that was used to break down oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is still being found in tar balls four years later along Gulf Coast beaches including Perdido Key.

This finding in a new study contradicts the message that the chemical dispersant quickly evaporated from the environment, which BP and EPA officials were telling a public who grew outraged over the widespread use of the chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico in the weeks following the April 20, 2010, oil spill disaster.

More than 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant was used on oil slicks and injected subsurface to prevent oil from fouling beaches and marshes.

Scientists at Haverford College and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, whose research paper was published in Environment Science & Technology Letters, say it’s important for other scientists studying the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster to know dispersant is still present.

The study, according to a news release from Woods Hole, examined samples from deep sea corals and surrounding sediments collected in December 2010 along with oil-soaked sand patties found along Gulf Coast beaches from July 2010 to the present.

See also: Tar mat cleanup continues
Photo gallery: Fort Pickens tar mat larger than first thought
See also: West Florida High students volunteer for Project GOO

The dispersant chemical DOSS persisted in variable quantities in deep-coral communities six months after the spill and 26 to 45 months on beaches, Helen White, an assistant professor of chemistry with Haverford College in Pennsylvania, pointed out.

“These results indicated that the dispersant, which was thought to undergo rapid degradation in the water column, remains associated with oil in the environment and can persist for around four years,” she said.

The scientists expected to find dispersants degrading more slowly in the cold, dark depths of the deep sea.

“The interesting thing is that the sand patties we’re finding on beaches four years after the spill have DOSS in them. That was somewhat unexpected,” co-author Elizabeth Kujawinski of Woods Hole in Massachusetts said.

The tar patties and tar balls are often referred to as weathered because they’ve been exposed to the weather, wave action, temperature changes and air, which were believed to provide more opportunities for the dispersant to dissipate.

“The amounts we detected are quite small, but we’re finding this compound in locations where we expected the dispersants to disappear, either by dissolving in the water or by being degraded by bacteria,” Kujawinski said.


One question the study did not answer is what kind of danger the presence of the chemical in question – DOSS or dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate – has on marine and human life that frequent the areas in which it’s found.

“It’s hard to say because we don’t know how toxic it may be,” White said.

She hopes in the future to collaborate with other scientists to find out.

For now, researchers hope their revelation will be helpful to other scientists studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster and prove valuable in the decision-making process to use dispersants in the future.

“The purpose of the paper was really to let researchers and policy makers know these components are still in the sand patties but they are at levels where we don’t know the health affects,” Kujawinski said. “We don’t know if sand laced with this molecule is harmful.”

Trace levels
Prior to the study, which was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, dispersant had only been analyzed in aqueous samples, the researchers said.

White and her team at Haverford developed a method to isolate the DOSS from the solid sand patties.

They sent the isolated compounds to Kujawinski’s Woods Hole lab. Researchers there used sophisticated instruments to quantify the DOSS samples collected from environments known to contain oil persisting from the oil spill.

The concentration of DOSS still present is very low compared to the original concentration of 2 percent to 10 percent dispersant to oil, White said.

“In sand patties, we’re seeing 0.001 percent dispersant to oil ratio,” she said. “It’s very low but it’s present, and we don’t know what that means and if it’s harmful.”

BP rebuffs report
Jason Ryan, BP America Inc. spokesman in Houston, maintains the concentrations of the dispersant compounds are so low – so small they are not detectable with standard laboratory equipment – they do not pose a risk to human health or aquatic life.

“In 2010, government agencies tested thousands of water and sediment samples for dispersant compounds in order to examine the potential persistence of dispersants in the environment,” he said. “None of the samples tested exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s dispersant benchmarks.”

Moreover, he said, the study has no data suggesting the traces identified came from the dispersants used in responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Ryan says the compound measured by the researchers is common in the Gulf’s environment and can be found in many consumer products.

“Prior studies have noted that it is difficult to directly link DOSS traces in the environment to dispersants, given that these compounds can come from several sources,” he said
White said researchers did make certain they were detecting the dispersant chemical and not one from another product by comparing it to other samples in the same environment, which were found to not contain DOSS.

No cause for alarm
Richard Snyder, director of the University of West Florida Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation, said he is not surprised by the scientists’ finding, but he cautioned beachgoers not to become alarmed and to continue to avoid tar mats and tar balls.

“Yes, it has impacts, but it’s not super toxic,” he said of DOSS. “The fear of the chemical is greater than reality. It’s a valuable chemical in treating oil spills.”

But he’s concerned about the impacts the dispersant mixed oil dispersed through the Gulf water column had on the ecosystem.

“The dispersant has toxicity (think about putting dish soap in a fish tank),” he said. “Oil has toxicity. Use of dispersant on oil slicks increases toxicity because it increases exposure – disperses the oil as microscopic droplets throughout the water. This effect was devastating to the plankton in the offshore area where dispersant was applied to the oil slicks. That material is very different than the tar mats still buried in the sand.”

Troubling sign
Sava Varazo, director of Emerald Coastkeepers, is not ruling out the fact that the lingering dispersant could be inflicting harm on human and marine life.

“I compare this to what happened in the (1989 Exxon) Valdez spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound,” he said. “Four years later, the herring population was decimated because of these same issues. We have four years behind us. We have a lots of studies saying lots of things. We’re starting to see the long-range impacts.”

He pointed to one recent study that indicated the oil spill has caused heart problems in Gulf tuna populations, which is causing them to swim more slowly and making them more vulnerable to predators.

He wonders whether dispersant is playing a role in this, too.

“The chemical has the ability to affect muscles and digestive and reproductive systems,” he said. “In samples on the tuna, their reproduction systems were affected,” he said.
He also wonders how much of the dispersant is being passed along the food chain and onto our plates. These are all questions he hopes further studies will reveal now that it’s known dispersants are still hanging around.

“BP scientists and government officials put a lot of faith in dispersants, and the residual effects are here to stay,” he said.

Adding to our chemical world
Keith Wilkins, Escambia’s director of community and environment, said researchers’ findings should serve as a cautionary tale about widespread use of all chemicals, even though he believes dispersants should play a limited role in oil spill response.

“People think things go away and they don’t,” he said. “All the chemicals we use every day and all of the pharmaceuticals we use don’t disappear. They dilute but don’t go away. We start adapting to those things, and pharmaceuticals go through our treatment plants and end up in our surface water.”

If there is anything we can learn from this study it is to be more conservative in the use of chemicals, he said.

If there is an upside to the oil spill, it has sparked an avalanche of money – much of it from BP fine dollars – to conduct unprecedented research of the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem.
Wilkins said he’s hopeful the dispersant study will lead to more research to reveal how toxic these trace levels of dispersant are to humans, marine life and the ecosystem.
“Using our environment as a giant experiment, we’re going to be learning so much, and some of what we learn might be good,” he said. “And some might be bad.”
203.8 million pounds of oily material collected in four states.

(For the first year, the total includes not only the mixture of residual oil and materials such as sand and shells, but also other solid material such as protective clothing and debris. Since May 2011, only the mixture of residual oil and sand, shells and water and other material was included.)

Mississippi:
29 million pounds

Alabama:
55.3 million pounds

Florida:
28.3 million pounds

Louisiana:
91.2 million pounds
Sources: BP; U.S. Coast Guard and other sources.

BP oil spill disaster by the numbers

April 20, 2010: And explosion ripped through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig as the rig’s crew completed drilling the exploratory Macondo well deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 crew members, injuring others and destroying the rig.
87 days: Oil gushed from the well, spewing 4.9 million barrels of crude into the Gulf until it was capped on Sept. 19.

April 22: With approval from the U.S. Coast Guard, responders first sprayed dispersants on the surface oil slick in the Gulf.

1.8 million gallons: Amount of dispesants, primarily Corexit 9500, BP applied to both the water’s surface and injected directly on the wellhead.

3 miles: BP claims no dispersants were used within 3 nautical miles of the shoreline.
98 percent: Pecentage of all use of aerial dispersant application that occurred more than 10 nautical miles offshore.

July 19, 2010: No dispersants were used for the response after this date, with the exception of 5 gallons applied on Sept. 4, 2010, within the moon-pool of a recovery vessel that brought the capping stack to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

4,739: Total miles of shoreline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida surveyed for oil.

203.8 million pounds: Amount of oily material collected in the four states. (For the first year, the total includes not only the mixture of residual oil and materials such as sand and shells, but also other solid material such as protective clothing and debris. Since May 2011, only the mixture of residual oil and sand, shells and water and other material was included.) Totals by state: Mississippi: Total-29 million pounds; Alabama: Total- 55.3 million pounds;-Florida: Total-28.3 million pounds; Louisiana: Total-91.2 million pounds.

1,783: Amount of weathered BP oil being removed by hand from the surf zone at the Gulkf Islands National Seashore’s Fort Pickens area.

Sources: BP; U.S. Coast Guard and other sources.

ONLINE
Hear what marine biologist Heather Reed of Pensacola has to say about the dispersant study online at www.pnj.com.
Special thanks to Richard Charter

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