[Biofuel] Unique Hazards of Tar Sands Oil Spills Confirmed by National Academies of Sciences

[dwoodard]

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[Biofuel] Unique Hazards of Tar Sands Oil Spills Confirmed by National Academies of Sciences | InsideClimate News

[Darryl McMahon]

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