Down with EXXON

[Nightwing]

I can't believe this, it makes me sick. http://www.enn.com/news/2004-08-27/s_26624.asp To think 15 years have gone by and these people and the enviornment are still in this bad of shape. Exxon was clearly at fault here and should not be trying to split hairs. They devistated the enviornment and are arguing about how much they should pay to clean it up. So they forked out 2.5 billion $ it wasn't enough to do the job. The enviornment has not recovered and instead of listening to experts outside their relm of influence because it would coast them more, they just though the enviornment would do the rest. Hey BONEHEADS, the enviornment shouldn't have to repair itself if you wouldn't have messed it up in the first place.

I really can't believe they can get away with dragging this thing out this long. Don't these people have a right to a speedy trial. Sorry if I am ranting but it hacks me off.

By the way I hope the link works I've never done this before.

[Timber Loftis]

The right to a speedy trial only applies in criminal cases.

If you want to get extra angry, think about the dozen or so insurance companies that declared bankruptcy and walked away from the thing. (Note: bankrupt companies don't go out of business, they just reorganize and keep operating.) Want to get extra extra angry? I know a guy who quit his teaching job, went to Alaska with his brother-in-law to do insurance adjustment work, made a killing in 12 months, and once the company declared bankruptcy, he returned home and put almost a million dollars in the bank. Money that didn't go to families with claims that were stuck with bupkus after the incident.

But, hey, bully for all those insurance adjusters.

Some good came from it. The Oil Pollution Act was passed soon thereafter to put management requirements on companies that store oil and add extra requirements for tankers. I think there was also a new round of Marpol tanker agreements on the international level -- including that now a tanker must maintain insurance for these incidents, and I think also there may be a strict liability scheme out there for tanker spills.

If you want to know how big a tanker spill can get, an oil tanker like those used today is as long as the empire state building is tall, and contains a great deal more cubic feet of space inside than the empire state building does.

[ 08-27-2004, 03:53 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Nightwing]

What amazed me was the fact that crude oil was not concidered to be a pollutant, instead it is just a commodity. If crude oil spills won't it pollute?

[Timber Loftis]

I think Exxon lost on that point, and I know that the Oil Pollution Act (which became part of the larger Clean Water Act) clarified things. Petroleum products of any kind are pollutants. Some are excluded from certain requirements, but they are still pollutants.

CERCLA/Superfund exempts petroleum from the hazardous waste cleanup rules. RCRA still applies to it, however, and refined petroleum contains several constituents that usually bring it back into the realm covered by CERCLA.

[Oblivion437]

Are these regulations enforceable? Or more importantly, are they enforced?

[Timber Loftis]

Except for large-volume spills, oil spills in the US are usually enforced by the state. So.... it depends on your state. If there has been a petroleum spill on property a client of mine is buying, I recommend they do Phase II investigation for petroleum constituents and cover, avoid, or remove contaminated soils, which get disposed of as hazardous waste in an approved landfill. With one big client who is afraid of liability associated with any spills on their site or in the area, if there is a spill on record I advise them to use a natural gas backup generator instead of a petroleum based generator. (I.e. if someone sues for liability, they will be able to say the petroleum couldn't have been theirs, because they don't use any).

As for the tanker spills, I believe mandatory insurance helps out a lot. You could look up that spill that happened recently over in Europe for information, though.