Remembering A Slick Spill And An Oily Character

(And I also posted here.)

Twenty years ago today, a jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil (more here).

And for anyone who thinks this is a story for which the past could never be a prologue, the following recent story should be noted from here…

A fuel tank ruptured late Sunday morning on a ship at Georgia Ports' Ocean Terminal, causing what was described as a "significant" oil spill on the Savannah River just west of the Talmadge Bridge, closing the river to vessel traffic and filling the air with pungent diesel fumes.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bobby Nash said late Sunday the river would remain closed as cleanup efforts continue overnight.

"The source of the actual spill has been secured," Nash said shortly before 9 p.m. "No more fuel is coming out."

The 625-foot Liberty, owned by American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier LLC, was damaged as it was departing the port facility about 11:30 a.m, puncturing its hull and rupturing its starboard fuel tank.

The puncture had the potential to release as much as 65,000 gallons of fuel. By nightfall Sunday, an estimated 7,000 gallons of diesel had spilled.

To get an idea of the main causes of oil spills, this article tells us the following…

When it comes to mixing oil and water, oceans suffer from far more than an occasional devastating spill. Disasters make headlines, but hundreds of millions of gallons of oil quietly end up in the seas every year, mostly from non-accidental sources §.

(These are approximately) how many millions of gallons of oil each source puts into the oceans worldwide each year:

Big Spills (37)

Routine Maintenance (137)

Down The Drain (363)

Up In Smoke (92)

Offshore Drilling (15)

Natural Seeps (62)

I hesitate to publicize information like this because it inadvertently gives ammunition to the “Drill Baby, Drill” chorus (“see, offshore drilling isn’t as dangerous to the environment as those danged li-bu-ruuls say”), though something else worth considering is that, even if we were to accelerate the exploration that was already loosed under Bushco, we will still run smack into the reality of “peak oil” (and with that in mind, I present the following for your consideration – food for thought that I’m still contemplating, to be honest). Also, this tells us of the potential impact of offshore drilling in the Florida Keys and related environmental impacts (and any discussion of oil presents a good opportunity to debunk this fiction once more also).

Also, I would truly be a negligent lefty blogger if I discussed Republicans and oil without mentioning Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin; as noted here…

Palin refuse(d) to push Exxon to pay the government for the unanticipated environmental injuries from the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Almost 20 years later, the private case is still unresolved and the governments likewise have yet to collect full payment from Exxon. Shortly before Palin took office in 2006, the governments presented Exxon with a demand to pay $92 million for this additional environmental damage, but her administration (did not press) the issue nor (take) Exxon to court to collect the money. Meanwhile, Exxon reaps record profits from Alaska.

There has actually been a scientific advancement in the study of oil spillage; this story tells us of underwater robots that have been developed to help detect the flow of spills.

And in response to the Exxon Valdez spill, Congress passed and Poppy Bush signed into law the Oil Pollution Act and established the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund in 1990 (here); the fund was increased to $2.7 billion in 2005, and as noted here…

On December 8, 2004, Senators (Frank) Lautenberg and (Jon) Corzine introduced S. 3035, the Oil Spill Prevention and Liability Act of 2004, which proposed, inter alia, phasing out federal limitations on liability for single-hull tank vessels. The Committee took no action on the bill; however, several of the bill's provisions were included in the enacted version of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2006.

On March 4, 2008, Senator Lautenberg introduced S. 2700. It was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, which did not hold any hearings on the bill.

On May 21, 2008, the Committee on Environment and Public Works approved the bill by voice vote (note: cannot determine at the moment if it was ever signed into law).

Finally, concerning Joseph Hazelwood, the guy responsible for the Exxon Valdez ecological disaster, this tells us that, even though he beat the rap on the main charges against him but was convicted instead of the lesser offense of improper oil discharge, he still appealed his sentence of 1,000 hours of community service until 1998 (the charges were thrown out in March 1996 but were reinstated a year and a half later).

No word on how many species were rendered extinct or endangered as a result of Hazelwood’s actions, though (I haven’t been able to locate this information, though this is an admittedly depressing reminder).