Transportation

American life revolves around travel — to jobs, shopping areas and vacation destinations — by aircraft, train, bus, motorcycle or automobile. Most of these trips are powered by petroleum-derived fuels. But rarely do we stop to think of the journey these fuels make from the ground to the refinery to you via tanker ships, pipelines, barges, railroad tank cars and/or tanker trucks. Thanks to the latest technology and improved training and operating practices, petroleum products move over great distances with unprecedented safety and minimal environmental impact.

Innovations and lessons learned improve tanker safety

• Thanks to the implementation of new safeguards and design improvements – many spurred by lessons learned in the massive 1989 Alaska oil spill -- more than 99.9997% of oil delivered by tanker to the U.S. over the past decade reached its destination without incident.
• In a conventionally designed oil tanker, the ship’s hull doubled as the wall of the cargo tank. In today’s double-hulled tankers, 6 to 10 feet of space separate the outer hull from the inner hull/tank wall. This helps to protect cargo in the event that the outer hull is pierced, greatly reducing the likelihood of a spill. All tankers operating in U.S. ports will have double hulls by the year 2015.
• The National Transportation Safety Board listed fatigue as a primary cause of the Alaska incident, leading to new regulation covering hours of service, development of methods to combat fatigue, and educational requirements for transportation employees.

Keeping it in the pipeline

• More than 200,000 miles of oil pipeline crisscross the continental United States, providing a stable and reliable source of fuel to American consumers. From 1995 to 2000, less than one teaspoon of oil was spilled per 1,000 barrel miles of oil transported.
• Pipeline operators employ powerful computers, remote sensors and satellite communications to monitor and manage entire pipeline networks from centralized control centers.
• Pipelines are maintained from within using remote-controlled “pigs” to scrape away residues that could impede product flow and to detect corrosion or other damage to pipeline walls.

Planning, preparedness and quick response minimize spill impacts

• Despite industry’s state-of-the-art prevention efforts, the potential for spills — whether results of human error, mechanical failure or natural disaster — will always remain. Fortunately, the United States possesses a sophisticated and well-coordinated spill response infrastructure to keep environmental harm to a minimum.
• The National Response System integrates spill response plans covering every part of the country to provide a clear chain of command and plan of action – including wildlife protection and recovery -- in the event of a spill.
• The voluntary National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) uses readiness drills — both within single facilities and among multiple participants — to ensure the effective deployment of spill response resources.
• The Coast Guard’s innovative Prevention Through People Program takes an educational approach to reducing the incidence of human error that could lead to accidental spills and releases in marine environments.

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