Watching Government: Next steps on spills

Oct. 4, 2010
As US President Barack Obama's commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began its Sept. 27 hearing, it became apparent that its work was entering a new, and potentially important, phase.

As US President Barack Obama's commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began its Sept. 27 hearing, it became apparent that its work was entering a new, and potentially important, phase.

Much of the information has been gathered and problems are being identified, the commission's co-chairmen said. "It was clear at our meeting last month that our regulatory approach did not keep up with technology," said former Florida Gov. and US Sen. Bob Graham. "I remain concerned that science apparently does not have a place at the table," he said.

Graham continued, "Just 5 years after the gulf suffered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, many have the same questions about whether the federal government moved quickly enough to respond to a major disaster."

William K. Reilly, a former US Environmental Protection Agency administrator, observed, "As someone intimately acquainted with the response following the spill in Prince William Sound, I continue to be amazed at the limitations of our response technology, particularly since our drilling and production technology has moved ahead so quickly."

Reilly noted that as he observed the number of skimmers that were deployed, he was particularly disappointed that only 3% of the spilled crude was recovered.

'Uneasy partnership'

"In many cases, the response displayed tremendous credit and ingenuity which revealed the dedication of the people involved. But it was still very limited and raised serious questions," Reilly continued. "This uneasy partnership between the government and the responsible party raises important questions about the flow of information, for example."

The nation learned a lot from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Prince William Sound, and the 1990 Oil Pollution Act reflects those lessons, he said. "Tanker transportation is safer than it was, but that law has been criticized as responding to the last war," Reilly said. "I hope that what we learn this time creates a better legislative response."

Retired US Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen, who was national incident commander in the Macondo spill response, agreed that OPA 1990 was "tanker-centric." But he also said the law worked well for 20 years with small offshore spills by helping federal and state governments work together.

The biggest problem was that the federal response could not match public expectations in a significantly bigger incident, he added. "We learned that the public's tolerance with the responsible party is inversely proportionate to the spill's size," Allen said.

BP and the federal government had sufficient financial resources to handle the spill, but a better understanding of their roles would have helped, he told the commission. "I think the plan worked better than many people believed," he maintained.

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