Pipeline debate should be centered on what to do when, not if, oil spill happens By JOSEPH ARVAI<http://www.hilltimes.com/author/Joseph%20Arvai> | Published: Monday, 08/26/2013 12:00 am EDT Last Updated: Monday, 08/26/2013 12:04 am EDT
http://www.hilltimes.com/opinion-piece/politics/2013/08/26/pipeline-debate-should-be-centered-on-what-to-do-when-not-if-oil-spill/35704 A key dimension of the current debate surrounding the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline focuses on environmental health and safety. Pipeline opponents argue that the risks of an oil spill, and the associated environmental consequences are too high, and provide sufficient cause for abandoning the project. Meanwhile, proponents-including Calgary's Enbridge, Inc.-point to promises about state-of-the-art monitoring and response systems that will greatly reduce the risk of an oil spill. The debate around the environmental risks associated with TransCanada Pipelines' proposed Keystone XL project from Canada to the United States is remarkably similar. There's no reason to think that either Enbridge or TransCanada is interested in explicitly neglecting their responsibilities toward the environment. Both companies have commitments to their clients, and to their shareholders, and future accidents would cost them both dearly. And both companies would be under close regulatory scrutiny regarding the operation of their respective projects. However, this doesn't mean that both companies aren't engaging in wishful thinking about the environmental risks associated with their proposed pipelines. Consider the following: On July 6, in Lac-Mégantic, Que., an unattended train carrying crude oil ran away, derailed, and exploded, killing 47 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. Later that same day, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on final approach at the San Francisco International Airport, killing three and critically injuring 12 others. Eighteen days later, a high-speed train derailed near Santiago de Compostela in Spain killing 79 people and injuring more than approximately 140 others. Though the investigations into these three accidents is ongoing, preliminary reports suggest that human error, and some would say carelessness, was the primary cause in each case. The same conclusions about human error have been drawn in a number of other recent high-profile accidents, ranging from the grounding and partial sinking of the MS Costa Concordia cruise ship off the west coast of Italy in 2012, with 30 people confirmed dead, and the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, resulting in the deaths of its seven member crew. What's interesting, and particularly tragic, about these accidents is that they all occurred in highly regulated and tightly monitored industries where promises-and indeed, track records-around safety are critically important indicators of performance: air travel, shipping, rail transport, and space exploration. It would be incorrect, not to mention irresponsible, to suggest that any of the companies involved-and NASA in the case of the Space Shuttle Columbia-wanted or deserved these accidents. It would be equally incorrect and irresponsible to suggest that either Enbridge or TransCanada want, or should deserve, accidents involving their proposed pipelines. But, the fact is, these accidents happened, and the question is why? One of the more elegant explanations comes from the sociologist Diane Vaughan. When studying the loss of another Space Shuttle, the Challenger in 1986, she found that NASA engineers and decision makers had become so accustomed to undertaking aberrant behaviors-cutting corners-that these behaviours became part of the agency's standard operating procedure; this in spite of the fact these behaviours were well outside NASA's own rules about safety. Vaughan termed this phenomenon the "normalization of deviance." She suggested, in a nutshell, that aberrant behaviours are allowed to become normalized by actors-and within institutions-because, most of the time, nothing bad happens as a result of them. That is, until something bad happens. In science, a phenomenon is termed "robust" when it happens with regularity, and this is the case with the normalization of deviance. It happens almost everywhere. Employees steal a little from their employers, until they get caught. Students cheat a little on assignments and exams, until their indiscretions are discovered. And people in companies routinely cut corners on safety, until accidents happen. Indeed, the normalization of deviance has already worked its way into the business of oil pipelines. Three years ago, on July 25, 2010, a segment of an Enbridge pipeline ruptured near Marshall, Mich., spilling more than 3.3 million litres of heavy oil from Alberta into the Kalamazoo River. I lived and worked near Marshall at the time, and calling the spill a major environmental and social catastrophe would be a serious understatement. And, the consequences of the spill linger to this day. Even though alarms sounded in Enbridge's Edmonton control room at the time of the spill, it was 18 hours before the company halted the flow of oil, preventing more of it from spilling. In fact, at the time the alarms sounded, Enbridge employees attributed the alarms to an air bubble-not an uncommon occurrence-and actually increased pressure in the line in an attempt to clear the "blockage." Not taking the spill alarms seriously because they were attributed to a non-serious, business-as-usual event constitutes a normalization of deviance. So as we debate the pros and cons of these future pipelines, whether there will be an oil spill as a result of human error should not be viewed as an open question as both opponents and proponents might suggest. That there will be a spill from any one of these new pipelines being discussed is a near certainty. The only open questions are, when and where will the spills happen, how big will they be, and what-if anything-can be done to stop or rectify them? Time will tell. Joseph Arvai is the Svare chair in applied decision research in the department of geography and the institute for sustainable energy, environment, and economy at the University of Calgary. He is also a senior researcher with Decision Research in Eugene, Ore. [email protected] The Hill Times [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Native News North List info{all lists}: http://nativenewsonline.org/natnews.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/join (Yahoo! 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