The Mayflower (Arkansas) Oil Spill

Posted by Milly Jons on October 8th, 2019

Disasters are unfortunately frequent occurrences that have and continue plaguing man throughout history. As such, disasters are events which often cause huge collateral damage, loss of life, and widespread destruction wherever they occur. By categorization, disasters can be majorly framed as either being natural (or because of natural occurrences) or manmade (often because of human error). While man-made disasters are easier to control and hence are frequent in occurrence, natural disasters, on the other hand, are often unpredictable, striking when least expected and, consequently, majorly affecting human life, the environment, and other entities within in mostly negative ways. A natural disaster can hence be described as a sudden event with catastrophic negative results, brought about by forces other than the actions of man.

Natural disasters may be resultant from flooding, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, and hurricanes, among others. To be noted is the fact that for an event/ occurrence to be categorized as a disaster, it requires to have had a profound effect on not only the environment, but also the loss of human life, wide-scale destruction as well as financial losses. Events like avalanches, tropical cyclones, blizzards, heat waves, earthquakes, limnic eruptions, storms, lightning strikes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis as well as deadly bushfires/wildfires fall in this category. Such occurrences are destructive in nature, with no preventative measures existing, with the only option of alleviating the resultant consequences and effects.

Man-made disasters, on the other hand, range from war and war ravages (resultant consequences and effects), diseases/ illnesses, industrial disasters/ accidents, transport/ infrastructural disasters, military disasters, nuclear tests, to atomic bombings of Japan’s Nagasaki and Hiroshima, terrorist incidences, and massacres/ extermination (ethnic cleansing). These come mostly out of human error, though some are deliberately planned. As pertaining to this paper, I will delve into man-made (human error) disasters, in particular the recent one – Mayflower oil spill that took place on March 29, 2013, with the responsibility befalling ExxonMobil. This event occurred when a pipeline containing Canadian Wabasca heavy crude, being pumped from the Athabasca oil sands (in Canada), ruptured in the state of Arkansas.

Approximately 12,000 barrels of oil (diluted tar sands oil/ bitumen) were spilled into a nearby marsh (in the Mayflower area), a residential neighborhood, ultimately polluting Lake Conway (which was a popular fishing place). Following the rupture, crude oil was seen along suburban streets as well as across lawns, finally finding its way to the aforementioned lake. This discovery on the 29th of March resulted in a small-scale evacuation of 22 homes, with dikes being built towards blocking culverts and for stopping greater pollution to the aforementioned lake. ExxonMobil, on its part, initiated various measures in conjunction with state agencies and pertinent departments with the aim of containment as well as clean-up procedural measures. As pertaining to the lake, the company deployed containment boom (3,600 feet) around it, with trucks and clean-up crews assisting with general cleanup measures.

As part of its responsibility, the firm also set up a hotline (claims) towards aiding the affected residents. Government agencies, such as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration), on their part, initiated investigations of the spill. The latter was to issue later on a corrective action order to the Pipeline Company with the aim of preventing the oil company from restarting pumping operations. This was particularly applied to the affected pipeline segment, with the aim to be satisfied that overall safety concerns as well as repairs had been addressed. The pipeline – Pegasus Pipeline – was deemed hazardous to not only the environment, but also to property and human / animal life. This was due to the release of a horrible smell, directly linked to the diluted bitumen that was being pumped through.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality was thus necessitated to conduct air quality monitoring, with reviews displaying only affected populations being at risk of health effects. A peculiar occurrence was the lack of greater media coverage; this being further worsened by the (FAA) Federal Aviation Administration’s move of closing airspace over the disaster area, with the restriction spanning on the 8 km (5 mile) radius. Consequently, accusations abound as to the reasons behind such a move, with critics citing this as a deliberate effort by the oil marketer to cover-up the true magnitude of damage from the prying journalists. Eventually, the flight restriction was cancelled after FAA had reviewed its reasons, hence enabling media personnel access the disaster area.

Additionally, there was a public (crowd) funding of two investigative reporters with the aim of investigating thoroughly the causes and consequential effects of the spill. Questions were raised as to the cause of the pipeline 22-foot-long gash, in addition to the overall volume of oil spilled. This was a reactionary measure because of the oil firm’s refusal to avail inspection results to the public. Furtherance is the legal action taken by Mayflower residents, seeking payment for property loss, health scare, as well as environmental degradation. This action forced both the federal and state governments to initiate a lawsuit against the entity 3 months after the spill due to the fact that these governments needed to act in the best interests of the people as well as of the environment.

This has resulted in action being taken by the State’s Attorney General’s office as well as the Department of Justice towards litigation on behalf of both federal and state government, as opposed to abdicating such a role to private lawyers. As pertaining to health issues, many concerns were raised, especially those concerning the breathing air, which affected most of the residents of the spill site. Children from elementary school were also sent home because of breathing petrochemical fumes. This was further backed by constant monitoring of air around the disaster area with the aim of broadening the scope of existent chemicals and their concentration. As such, industry as well as government experts took part in this test, discovering that the toxic levels were above the occupational health benchmarks, especially in the affected areas.

Following the disaster, ExxonMobil conducted various inspections towards ascertaining the reasons behind the cracked pipeline in collaboration with the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Due to the stormy weather that pounded the area after the spill, the oil spill was further spread into neighborhoods, hence necessitating the pumping of accumulated water out of the contaminated cove and into the Lake Conway’s main body. Further measures were taken towards controlling and/ or responding to the rain moving oil covered areas, with earthen dikes, plywood and gravel being utilized towards keeping the water contained in the cove from spreading into the lake, with the rain necessitating the aforementioned procedural measure.

Not only was Lake Conway affected, but also the wetlands with aquatic marine life. The boom, covering both the lakeside and cove-side of the pump, was to aid in preventing any oil patches from finding their way into the Lake’s main body. This, however, was hard to ascertain, as the pumping of water took place during the severe weather/ storm with the aim of preventing spillage of the cove water over into the highway. A point to note is the lack of filtering systems in the pump, which provided space for speculation that some of the spilled chemical pollutants could find their way into the Lake Conway’ main body. Due to the overall impact as well as displacement of residents, the firm provided resources for lodging, food, and other utilities.

While to some of the residents, the efforts initiated and executed by the oil firm were quite appropriate, considering the existent situational contexts, the majority were of the contrary view, citing various failures. Above all complaints was the lack of transparency with residents, accusing the oil giant of deliberately causing a media blackout of the disaster. This can be attested by the fact that the majority of initial clips, pictures, and sounds are from volunteer photographers, and journalists who did not have the proper gear, especially considering the resultant weather conditions after the spill. Furthermore, there is documentation that pinpoints the fact that the oil firm had had prior knowledge of the spill, but deliberately presented false data and information as media press release.

As pertaining to its overall response, the utility of an unapproved emergency response plan may have resulted in more spillage. Under a worst-case discharge scenario, the difference of a few minutes could portend to increased spillage. Thus, the firm’s 16 minutes time-span utilized towards detecting the rupture, and consequently shut down the segment, was above the 2009-response plan having a 12-minute maximum duration. Additionally, witness statements portend to the fact that workers engaged in the initial clean up did so without protective measures such as respirators, especially during the spill’s initial days. This unfortunately was a repeated scenario of what had happened during the aftermath of the Kalamazoo oil spill of 2010.

Above all, investigative research based on metallurgical analysis did conclude that the root cause of the pipeline rapture was due to initial defects traceable to the manufacturing aspect. These were namely hook cracks being quite near the metal’s seam, with additional contributing factors entailing both elongation properties across the seam, which was electric resistance welded, and extremely low impact elongation and toughness properties. However, findings were not indicative as to whether corrosion (either external or internal) was a contributing factor to the aforementioned rupture, and hence the disaste.

Future disasters, especially of similar nature, need to be immediately engaged, with proper and effective emergency response plans being utilized. This should be coordinated between not only the oil entity involved, but also all requisite emergency units as well as state or federal agencies. The lack of constantly updated information, despite if the work towards reducing panic and social unrest, in the final arena only aids in fueling speculation, fears, and anger among population and specifically those directly affected. Due to the nature of such spill’s pollutants, affected areas should not only be cordoned off, but requisite measures should be taken.

These should include the testing/ analysis of water and air toxicity levels, as well as providing emergency medical response in case scenarios where peoples’ overall health is at risk. While conducting such clean-up procedures, the clean-up workers should also consider their overall health; spills often contain toxic pollutants not only on the ground but also in the air, thus the need for respirators. Due to the utility of metals as core material for building pipelines, existent oil firms need to constantly survey and upgrade when necessary any suspicious pipeline segments which are prone to various effects. This is a further requisite due to the fact that corrosion does impact majorly metal pipeline’s durability, thus the necessity of repeated replacement, repair, and upgrading.

In conclusion one may say that though man-made disasters occur less often, they do have a great impact not only on the environment, flora and fauna, but also on human beings. Consequently, greater measures as well as stringent implementation of rules and regulations should be carried out, with punitive measures being taken against entities found to have flouted various precautionary measures. Pertinent state and federal agencies should also play a key role of not only policy formulation, but also the greater implementation towards mitigating the disasters as well as preventing the future ones.

The article was prepared and submitted by a professional writer from advanced plagiarism checker - Milly Jones.