http://insideclimatenews.org/news/09122015/unique-hazards-tar-sands-oil-spills-dilbit-diluted-bitumen-confirmed-national-academies-of-science-kalamazoo-river-enbridge
[links in on-line article]
Unique Hazards of Tar Sands Oil Spills Confirmed by National Academies
of Sciences
Oil companies need to inform regulators which type of oil they are
transporting in pipelines and tailor response plans accordingly, the
report recommends.
By Zahra Hirji, InsideClimate News
Dec 9, 2015
A sobering critique of America's pipeline spill response efforts was
delivered in a new study released Tuesday, concluding they aren't
adequate when it comes to spills involving sludgy crude oil pumped from
the Canadian tar sands.
The 144-page report's main message is that the thick type of oil called
diluted bitumen, or "dilbit," initially behaves like conventional oil in
the first few days following a spill but then quickly degrades, or
weathers, into a substance so chemically and physically different that
it defies standard spill responses.
The report recommends tailoring spill response plans by oil type, a
stark contrast to the reassurances often uttered by energy companies
that dilbit doesn't need special regulations. In recent years, the
volume of dilbit coursing through American pipelines has increased
steadily, from 250 million barrels in 2013 to 300 million barrels in 2014.
Conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine, the investigation released Tuesday offers the most
comprehensive analysis to date of dilbit spill properties, environmental
and health impacts and effectiveness of response methods.
"We feel that we have put forward practical and pragmatic
recommendations and we are optimistic that these recommendations will be
taken in that spirit," said Diane McKnight, chair of the National
Academies committee that developed this report.
The report, requested in May 2014 by regulators at the U.S. Department
of Transportation in response to a Congressional inquiry, comes more
than five years after the destruction of dilbit spills first hit the
national spotlight, following the country's largest inland oil spill in
Michigan. An Enbridge pipeline rupture in July 2010 released more than 1
million gallons of dilbit, mostly in the Kalamazoo River, where it
dirtied the water and impacted the surrounding vegetation and wildlife.
The massive spill displaced 150 families, forced a two-year closure of a
section of the river and cost pipeline operator Enbridge at least $1.2
billion to clean up.
An InsideClimate News investigation of the accident—"The Dilbit
Disaster: Inside the Biggest Spill You've Never Heard Of"—won the 2013
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. In 2013, another pipeline
ruptured in Mayflower, Ark., fouling a suburban neighborhood.
"The National Academy of Sciences is skewering the industry's 'oil is
oil' talking point—making it clear that diluted bitumen is a different
beast altogether and needs to be treated as such," Anthony Swift, Canada
program director for the green group Natural Resources Defense Council,
said in a statement Tuesday.
"Canadian oil sands crudes have been transported safely in the U.S. for
more than 40 years," Sabrina Fang, a spokeswoman for the industry trade
group American Petroleum Institute, wrote in an email to InsideClimate
News. "All crude oils have to meet the same criteria when put in a
pipeline, which protects the pipeline and the quality of all transported
crudes.... If a release does occur, pipeline operators are prepared to
respond quickly and effectively, working with local emergency responders."
"The prospect of a release of crude oil into the environment through a
pipeline failure inherently raises a number of concerns," wrote the
study authors, a collection of nearly a dozen oil spill experts from
academia and industry in the U.S. and Canada.
"These concerns include not only minimizing a number of possible
long-term environmental impacts but also protecting the safety of
responders and the public during and after the spill response," the
study continued. "When all risks are considered systematically, there
must be a greater level of concern associated with spills of diluted
bitumen compared to spills of commonly transported crude oils."
'Act Quickly and Decisively'
When a pipeline ruptures, often the people impacted do not know it is
dilbit.
"In the U.S, and many other places, once the oil spills, the first
responders do not know what it is," said Merv Fingas, a study author and
an Alberta-based energy consultant. "They are told it is crude," not
what kind of crude.
Once on the scene, the oil cleanup crew still won’t know the oil type by
looking at it, explained Fingas, because dilbit and the more commonly
transported oil, called conventional medium and light crude, look
exactly the same—"until a few days pass."
Dilbit is a mix of heavy bitumen, or oil sands, extracted from the
Alberta oil patch. It emerges with the consistency of peanut butter and
it is then thinned with diluents to make it easier to transport. If
dilbit spills, the diluents evaporate, leaving behind a tarry goo that
sinks in water and is very sticky.
Here's the rub: once it becomes clear to responders that the oil at hand
is dilbit—because it has visibly started to degrade—it is likely already
too late to effectively clean it up, according to the recent report.
"The big message is to act quickly and decisively," said Bob Sussman, an
environmental consultant at Sussman and Associates and one of the study
authors. "In the hours and days following a dilbit spill, it is critical
to contain and remove as much of the material as possible."
The narrow window of time when dilbit most looks and acts like
conventional oil offers the best opportunity to employ conventional
response methods, such as burning it or using equipment called booms and
skims to contain and collect oil from water.
Once dilbit starts to weather, it sinks in the water, rendering most
oil recovery methods useless.
"This important study from the National Academy of Sciences confirms
what the tragic spills in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and Mayflower,
Arkansas have already shown us: transporting heavy tar sands oil crude
presents unique and unacceptable risks to wildlife and habitat," Jim
Murphy, the National Wildlife Federation's senior counsel, said in a
statement.
The report also highlighted several key scientific gaps concerning
weathered dilbit, including how little is known about its threat to
public health due to long-term exposure by air and water.
Better Communication Is a Must
The study authors detailed several policy recommendations aimed at
improving dilbit spill preparedness, response and cleanup.
Oil companies need to inform regulators which type of crude oil they
are transporting in every pipeline segment before a spill occurs, the
report recommended.
Operators should also design different spill response plans depending on
the oil type, the authors advised. And when a spill does occur,
operators must identify the oil type—by industry name—within six hours
and, if requested, analyze a sample within 24 hours.
"We are really pleased with the depth the committee went to and the
specificity of its recommendations particularly...governing spill
response plans," said Rebecca Craven, program manager at the watchdog
group Pipeline Safety Trust.
The National Academies committee had previously published a related
report in 2013, responding to a Congressional inquiry, that concluded
that dilbit is not more prone to spillage than conventional crudes.
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