API: Industry improves environmental record

June 24, 1996
The U.S. oil industry's environmental, health, and safety records continue to improve. So says the American Petroleum Institute's fourth annual environmental performance report. API measures performance in eight categories: chemical releases, workplace safety, environmental spending, refinery waste management, oil spills, underground storage tanks, gasoline vapor controls, and used oil recycling.

The U.S. oil industry's environmental, health, and safety records continue to improve.

So says the American Petroleum Institute's fourth annual environmental performance report.

API measures performance in eight categories: chemical releases, workplace safety, environmental spending, refinery waste management, oil spills, underground storage tanks, gasoline vapor controls, and used oil recycling.

Michael Canes, API vice-president for policy analysis, statistics, and information systems, said, "This report provides evidence, using objective measures, of achievements by the U.S. petroleum industry. While we have more work to do, the trend in the petroleum industry is in the right direction.

"The industry is making cleaner fuels, emitting less and recycling more of the chemicals present in refineries. Oil spills are occurring less frequently, and most of our underground storage tanks and piping, which are checked regularly for leaks, already meet 1998 government standards."

In addition, Canes said, special equipment keeps gasoline vapors from entering the air when fuel is transferred from one tank to another, and gasoline stations collect growing amounts of used motor oil from motorists for recycling.

API uses government figures to show oil companies have one of the best employee safety and health records in all U.S. industry.

Some highlights

Job related injuries and illnesses are less common among oil workers than among persons in other occupations, API reported. Job related injuries and illnesses declined 21% in the oil industry during 1986-94 while rising 6% in the private sector as a whole.

The oil industry spends as much on environmental protection as it did searching for oil and gas-$10.6 billion in 1994, equal to more than $100 for every U.S. household.

API said refinery workers experienced job related injuries and illnesses about one third as often as average manufacturing workers in 1994, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While refineries produced cleaner fuels, they reduced pollution associated with making them, based on Environmental Protection Agency reports. Refineries released 10% fewer chemicals into the environment in 1994 compared with the previous year.

Refinery releases have declined 24% since 1988, the year EPA uses as a baseline for its annual toxics release inventory. During the same period, releases of chemicals that EPA lists as carcinogens declined 22%.

API pointed out that making cleaner fuels requires more processing of crude oil, resulting in more residual wastes and by-products. Refineries are recycling more of their residuals, especially those of greatest environmental concern.

In 1994, refineries recycled about one third of the residuals covered by API's waste management survey, compared with 22% in 1987, when API first conducted its survey.

The trend is more pronounced among hazardous wastes. Refineries recycled more than half of such wastes included in the survey in 1994, compared with 15% in 1987.

U.S. Coast Guard records show most oil spills are small-less than 10 gal. A few large spills of 10,000 gal or more accounted for nearly 90% of the total spilled during the last decade.

There were 7,800 spills in 1994, down 17%, but nearly twice as much oil was spilled compared with the previous year. Two spills were responsible for the increase: a barge that ran aground in San Juan Harbor in Puerto Rico and several pipelines that ruptured when the San Jacinto River in Texas flooded during a storm. The pipeline spill alone was 1.5 million gal, or 38% of the total for the year.

API said the trend is toward fewer large spills. During the decade covered in the report, the frequency of large spills declined 57%.

The rate of job-related injuries and illnesses among oil pipeline workers dropped 37% in 1994. The rate is down 47% since 1986, in contrast to the 13% increase among all U.S. transportation workers. The injury and illness rate of oil pipeline workers is one fourth that of all transportation workers and the lowest in the entire oil industry.

The report noted underground storage tanks and associated piping are under a mandate to meet strict federal standards by 1998 to prevent contamination of soil and groundwater. API member companies have reported the vast majority of their tanks meet the 1998 standards.

Products marketing

To prevent air pollution, gasoline service stations and other marketing facilities are required to keep fuel vapors from escaping into the air when gasoline is transferred from one container into another on its journey to market and when cars and trucks refuel. In 1994, API member companies reported their facilities met or exceeded federal and state requirements for both types of controls.

The number of used-oil collection centers operated by participating API members and their independent dealers totaled 10,808, up 10% in 1994 from 1993. They took in about 16 million gal of used oil, nearly one third more than the previous year.

Marketing workers experienced job related injuries and illnesses in 1994 at less than 60% the rate of the average marketing worker.

The rate of job related injuries and illnesses among petroleum exploration and production workers and miners has declined since 1986. Exploration and production workers have seen a steeper decline than miners: 33% compared with miners' 15%.

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