ADVISOR, March/April 1995
Oil Spills in the Great Lakes Basin:
Reponse and prevention
On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill, the largest in U.S. history, contaminated more than 300 miles of shoreline and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The worldwide attention received by the Exxon Valdez oil spill concentrated federal efforts on how to increase the effectiveness of spill response. One year after the Valdez incident, the president signed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) into law.
A primary goal of OPA is to expand prevention and preparedness activities, and enhance response capabilities of the federal government. In addition, OPA provides for better coordination of spill contingency planning among federal, state and local authorities.
Many different components of an ecosystem can be negatively affected by an oil spill. Environmental effects can be acute and temporary, or persistent and long-lasting.
When an oil spill occurs, fish, wildlife and vegetation that depend on the land and water resources of an affected area are at risk of being exposed to petroleum. The general effects of oil on plants and wildlife can be classified into three categories: environmental, external and internal.
External effects of oil on plants and wildlife are often the most noticeable and most immediately debilitating. These occur when a plant or animal is covered in oil, and is inhibited from performing key functions such as maintaining body temperature (in animals) or diffusing oxygen (in plants).
While not immediately apparent, the internal effects of oil on wildlife are equally life-threatening. For example, oil can damage the digestive systems in animals, preventing them from using food or water, and may penetrate plant tissue, disrupting membrane structures.
Many direct and indirect costs are associated wth oil spills. These include loss of product, environmental and industrial damage, recovery, cleanup, remediation and losses to recreational and tourism industries.
The responsible party for a spill shoulders a significant amount of the resulting economic costs. Not only is much of their product lost, but they are also typically responsible for paying for recovery, cleanup and remediation costs associated with the spill. In addition, they are liable for any environmental damage that may occur.
Facilities that have potential to cause substantial or serious harm to the environment are required by OPA to develop facility response plans (FRPs). These plans, which deal with how to respond to a worst case discharge, help to protect the environment and reduce spill costs.
In addition, if oil from a spill is withdrawn along with water into a water intake, it can interfere with industrial processes, such as medical/pharmaceutical, food processing and manufacturing, which require a high level of water quality. Oil could also contaminate public drinking water and agricultural irrigation supplies.
While the potential of large oil spills cannot be discounted, they tend to be unusual events. According to federal On-Scene Coordinator Rose Ellison, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, low-volume spills of petroleum products such as gasoline are the most common types of spills in the basin.
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Revised: May 10, 1996
Maintained by Christine Manninen, manninen@glc.org