Environmental Accidents Research Articles

Avaliação do Processo de Salinização da Água na Microbacia do Rio Doce, São João da Barra-RJ, em Decorrência do Acidente Ambiental no Superporto do AçuRJ

The use of irrigation in agricultural crops is critical to ensure adequate productivity, especially in regions with water shortage and climate with well-defined rainy and dry seasons. This study aimed at analyzing the environmental accident in Deposit 4 of LLX Acu Operacoes Portuarias S.A., in November 2012, and assess the quality of water used for irrigation of farms in the Doce River watershed, Sao Joao da Barra, RJ, in March 2013. The samples were collected from 13 to 16 March 2013, and the analyses were performed at Laboratorio Campo, located in Paracatu-MG. The following parameters were analyzed: electrical conductivity (EC), chloride, sodium, calcium, magnesium and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). During the environmental accident in Deposit 4, in November 2012, the EC of the Quitingute Water Channel reached the level of 42,000 µS/cm. However, in March 2013, the water of this channel showed no restrictions as to use in irrigation. The results of analyses of groundwater wells showed that approximately 11% of the samples were above the ideal EC and that none had restrictions on sodium danger according to the SAR classification.

Making the case for a political ecology investigation at Goro nickel mine

New Caledonia’s Goro nickel mine, owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale, is unique in the world. The US $6 billion smelter, set over a vast biodiversity hotspot, is using high-pressure acid leaching treatment technology that has never been tested on such a scale. Over the past 10 years it has been the source of a series of environmental accidents, and the object of many conflicts, including intra-community conflicts (Horowitz, 2009, 2010). With multiple actors, complicated motives and set within a political and economic context of decolonisation and development, Vale New Caledonia’s mining project at Goro in the south of the main island of Grand Terre deserves to be the focus of a multi-dimensional and nuanced journalism investigation. This article argues that to do so requires combining journalism as a research practice with a political ecology framework. This combination should ensure that the journalist has an in-depth understanding of the structures and processes of the field (Nash, 2014), enabling her to interrogate, map the visible as well as the visible, and avoid the superficial.

Reação aos acidentes ambientais: um estudo em uma mineradora no mercado brasileiro

The aim of this study is to analyze the reaction of a particular mining company in terms of disclosure in Sustainability Reports regarding the news about environmental accidents in which it was involved, as a form of legitimation. According to Legitimacy Theory, companies seek voluntarily to disclose information as a way to legitimize their activities vis-a-vis society in an attempt to maintain the so-called “social contract” between businesses and society. Thus, we analyzed the Sustainability Reports of a Brazilian mining company from 2004 to 2010. The analysis was performed using the Alceste® discourse analysis program, and the results were analyzed together with the three environmental accidents involving the company. The results show a change in the discourse on sustainability in the reports after these environmental accidents. The topic of environmental preservation took the space previously dedicated to the description of operational activities. There was also a strengthening of other aspects of legitimation through the publication of reports on awards of an environmental nature, which did not occur in disclosures previous to the accidents. We conclude that the findings of this study corroborate those reported by Deegan et al. (2000), which is the paper that inspired this work, and the aspects advocated by the Theory of Legitimacy. Keywords: financial statements, Sustainability Report, Theory of Legitimacy.

Study on the Accident of Kitchen Food Service Industry Employees in Accordance with the Safety and Environment Awareness and Accident Experience

Study on the Accident of Kitchen Food Service Industry Employees in Accordance with the Safety and Environment Awareness and Accident Experience

Study on the Accident of Kitchen Food Service Industry Employees in Accordance with the Safety and Environment Awareness and Accident Experience

Study on the Accident of Kitchen Food Service Industry Employees in Accordance with the Safety and Environment Awareness and Accident Experience

Stock market and deterrence effect: A mid-run analysis of major environmental and non-environmental accidents

We analyze the stock market reaction to 161 major environmental and non-environmental accidents, reported on the front page of the New York Times for half a century. To determine if the market induces a real deterrence effect, we extend the event windows up to one year. On average, the market reacts negatively and enduringly to the announcement of an accident. However, this average effect is largely driven by the airline industry and by government interventions. The estimated average compounded abnormal return following environmental accidents does not differ from zero after one year. This does not exclude, in severe events affecting large firms, huge losses in equity value, but the significant negative cumulative abnormal returns estimated immediately after an environmental accident in previous studies do not persist. Our results suggest that in a market driven by institutional investors, the deterrence effect is likely to be weak.

Mining web-based data to assess public response to environmental events

We explore how the analysis of web-based data, such as Twitter and Google Trends, can be used to assess the social relevance of an environmental accident. The concept and methods are applied in the shutdown of drinking water supply at the city of Toledo, Ohio, USA. Toledo's notice, which persisted from August 1 to 4, 2014, is a high-profile event that directly influenced approximately half a million people and received wide recognition. The notice was given when excessive levels of microcystin, a byproduct of cyanobacteria blooms, were discovered at the drinking water treatment plant on Lake Erie. Twitter mining results illustrated an instant response to the Toledo incident, the associated collective knowledge, and public perception. The results from Google Trends, on the other hand, revealed how the Toledo event raised public attention on the associated environmental issue, harmful algal blooms, in a long-term context. Thus, when jointly applied, Twitter and Google Trend analysis results offer complementary perspectives. Web content aggregated through mining approaches provides a social standpoint, such as public perception and interest, and offers context for establishing and evaluating environmental management policies.

Petroleum Oil and Gas Industry Waste Treatment; Common Practice in Indonesia

The demand for oil, gas, and other energy sources are growing dramatically with the worldwide energy consumption that projected to increase by 37 percent in 2035. Rising demand driven by world’s population which predicted to increase by 25 percent in the next 20 years [1]. Indonesia as the fourth largest population in the world, known to its total primary energy consumption increased by more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2010. Currently, Indonesia’s oil production reached nearly 860,000 barrels of oil per day [2]. Oil and gas exploration and production (E and P) activities aside from a necessity, are responsible for various environmental accidents around the world, e.g.: Oil spills during transportation and distribution; Waste from the E and P operations in the form of oil sludge, waste drilling fluid/mud; Waste treatment plant residue (oil separator, oil catcher, dissolved air flotation); Leakage from floating storage, tankers, storage tanks; Residue from cleaning activities; Work over wastes, well completion, treatment, and stimulation fluid; Produced water; Offshore wells drilling leakage as well as the distribution of oil spilled from the well to the tanker and from the ship to the mainland [3,4]. Inadequate treatment of those wastes can threaten the human health and safety as well as the environment.

Accident Prevention and Damage Reduction in an Extended Liability Scheme

This study explores how an extended liability scheme affects a judgment-proof firm’s precaution levels to prevent accidents and reduce damage when the regulator cannot observe the firm’s private transactions. For this purpose, we incorporate the firm’s precautions to reduce damage into the model proposed by Hiriart and Martimort [1], who only investigated accident prevention. Then, we examine the optimal regulation of a firm that takes measures to reduce not only the probability of a serious environmental accident but also the extent of the damage of such an accident and analyze how the levels of these two types of efforts are affected by introducing an extended liability scheme. We expand the results of Hiriart and Martimort [1] by showing that extending liability to the firm’s stakeholders may improve social welfare by enhancing accident prevention efforts and by weakening damage reduction efforts even when the regulator cannot observe the private transactions between the firm and its stakeholders.

Research on 1D-2D Co-simulation for Cabin Air Environment Accident

With the commercial aircraft widely used, flight accidents related to the aircraft cabin happened sometimes, which is a serious threat to the flight safety. According to incomplete statistics, there are 1.5 times of accidents related to the aircraft cabin environment throughout the world. In some accidents, smoke containing toxic air enter the cabin and threaten the passengers. In recent years more and more attention is paid to the aircraft cabin environment, which is mainly about two areas: one is the research on the unsteady distribution law of cabin air environment and the nonlinear diffusion mechanism of pollutants via the technology of Computational Fluid Dynamic(CFD),the other is the research on parameters characteristic of components in the ECS(Environment Control System) with the system simulation. However, research accomplished related to the two areas above is mostly under normal condition of aircraft ECS, attention to the simulation of cabin air environment accident is more and more needed. Furthermore, it is necessary that 1D ECS simulation model and 2D CFD model are combined together, considering the complete parameters time history from 1D ECS components to the 2D aircraft cabin when doing the research on cabin environment accident. This paper describe a cabin environment smoke accident simulation with a 1D-2D co-simulation technology.

Factors in Organisational Environmental Management System Implementation – Developed vs. Developing Country Contexts

Country specificities and national cultures influence Environmental Management Systems (EMS) implementation and pro-environmental behaviour in organisations. Previous studies have focused on organisations in developed or emerging economies, creating a need to establish the extent to which findings are applicable to developing counterparts. This paper presents EMS implementation from a developing country perspective, reporting on EMS implementation factors (drivers, benefits, barriers) affecting Nigerian organisations’ pro-environmental behaviour, by analysing questionnaire responses from 136 Nigerian organisational respondents. Most commonly cited drivers were ‘environmental concern’ and ‘desire for improved organisational efficiency’. Key barriers were ‘cost of implementation/budget barriers’ and ‘regulatory agency bureaucracy’. Key benefits were ‘reduced environmental accidents and improved site safety’, ‘enhanced corporate image’ and ‘more efficient resource use’. To situate findings within a global construct, results were compared with previous studies in more developed economies. EMS implementation factors differed from those in more developed economies. Plausible explanations for differences are discussed.

Priority responses to the 2006 Guimaras oil spill, Philippines: Will history repeat itself?

The Guimaras oil spill of 2006 was the worst environmental accident of the Philippine and coincidentally happened during a period of rapid progress in nationwide communication technology. This study took advantage of the massive media coverage of the incident to answer questions about the priority needs of the affected population, the prominent disaster response, and the rationale for the response. Techniques were combined to implement a descriptive analysis of the available information-interview of key respondents and news survey, substantiated by a document analysis of hardcopy and online materials, and content mapping in the integration and analysis.The priority needs of the oils spill victims were few and basic-a plain consequence of economic and physical dislocations. Yet, these needs were inadequately met because the many forms of disaster response “diluted” the relief operation and further spawned unwarranted issues that aggravated the situation. Habitat assessment and rehabilitation, especially of mangroves, emerged as the prominent response. Aggressively pushed by experts and advocates, it competed with and overshadowed the priority action on the distressed population.The environmental response is linked to a lingering foreign crusade. The environmentalism is unregulated and turning adverse, but it continually succeeds because, apart from its domineering advocacy, as foreign imposition, the society is naturally resilient to it, Philippine laws support it and, particularly, even intellectuals espouse it. Moreover, there exists a large pool of potential environment advocates in the country with hardly 1% of which being development-oriented.Other failures of the disaster response are discussed. The aftermath rippled with issues on litigations, irregularities and continuing research.

군기지 오염토양의 정화 방법에 대한 연구

Handling of the large quantity of oil, generation of heavy metals at the military blasting range and outworn facilities could cause the environmental accidents. Pollution levels of the former five U.S military bases located in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do were measured. Soil contamination by TPH (Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons), BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene), and heavy metals and groundwater contamination were detected. In order to purify contaminated soil, a variety of technologies including soil vapor extraction, slurping, landfarming and soil washing were applied. Contaminated soils of five target bases were purified and the results were suitable for the legal standards.

Study on Risk Source Recognition in Hongze Lake of South-to-North Water Diversion Project by R-AHP Comprehensive Evaluation

The water-ways were complicated and intertwined in the Hongze Lake section of South-to-North Water Transfer Project. A complex natural environment and multitudinous chemical enterprises here result in environmental risk sources in this region.This study, with the Hongze Lake as center, aims to investigate information of pollution sources about 22 plants in the surrounding cities.We construct recognition evaluation index system for watershed risk sources, calculate risk coefficient about the risk sources by R-AHP Comprehensive Evaluation and finally determine the 4 risk levels. The results can help to make identification mark taking the grading alert colors and it is significant for decreasing the probability of major environmental pollution accidents.

Risk-based optimization of emergency rescue facilities locations for large-scale environmental accidents to improve urban public safety

Emergency rescue facility is an indispensable component of urban system and important for public safety. Due to the special characteristics and complexity of urban environmental accidents, locations of emergency rescue facilities should be optimized, and the decision criteria should be comprehensive, taking into account not only the spatial relations of these facilities but also the potential hazard of environmental accidents. This study proposes an innovative methodological framework to optimize the locations of emergency rescue facilities in the contexts of large-scale urban environmental accidents. Risk-based approach is involved to delineate the potential hazard of environmental accidents to the adjacent urban areas, and a three-objective decision optimization model is constructed. Moreover, an appropriate spatial representation and encoding strategy is designed and coupled with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II for model solving. A case study is presented to demonstrate the methodology, and it provides evidence that the involvement of risk mapping into the model construction has significant effect on the optimization result. The findings show that the strategy proposed in this study has the potential to be a useful decision support tool for urban planning with respect to public safety.

E&P Notes (July 2014)

E&P Notes ’Williston Basin Reserves May Top 21 Billion Barrels, Peak Production in 6 to 7 Years’ More than 21 billion bbl of light, sweet crude oil will be extracted over the lifetime of the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays, according to the latest projections from energy consultancy group Wood Mackenzie. The two plays are found in the United States’ prolific Williston basin and together produce approximately 1 million BOEPD. As production rises from the deeper Three Forks formation, the firm predicts that between 2020 and 2021, production from the Bakken Shale will reach its peak. Despite the fact that production growth is slowing in the Bakken, Wood Mackenzie said there will be commercial opportunities throughout the basin for years to come. Reductions in drilling and completion costs and increased recovery rates are driving operators to explore less-rich areas of the Bakken. “It might not have made sense in 2010 to spend (USD) 13 million on a Bakken well that is only going to get about 300,000 BOE out of the ground,” said Jonathan Garrett, an upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie who specializes in the Williston basin. “But flash forward to today; now it might make sense to spend (USD) 6 or 7 million on a well to get 300,000 to 350,000 BOE.” ’US Offshore Regulator to Focus More on Technology’ The United States’ top offshore regulator said his agency is adopting new policies and measures to improve its working relationship with the offshore industry. To accomplish this, the director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Brian Salerno, said that his agency will increase its focus on technology assessment. Salerno explained that traditionally, BSEE has based regulatory standards in part on industry standards but the ongoing advancements of offshore technology have presented a challenge to this model. “We still rely on that basic approach, but regulations have always had a tough time keeping up with technological change,” said Salerno, who spoke at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston in May. “For that matter, industry standards are having a tough time keeping up as well. And that has become even more of a problem as the pace of technological innovation and change has accelerated.” ’First Transboundary GOM Leases Awarded Under New Rules’ The US Department of the Interior and the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have awarded ExxonMobil three offshore leases in the US-Mexico boundary area of the Gulf of Mexico, the first leases subject to the terms of the 2012 US-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement. The agreement governs reservoirs that are split by or close to the boundaries of the US and Mexico. It allows US operators and Mexican state oil company Pemex to explore transboundary reservoirs as single units, encouraging unitization - the process by which multiple leaseholders agree to extract resources through the work of a single operator. Unitization encourages the drilling of fewer wells, which increases efficiency of production and reduces waste as well as the likelihood of environmental accidents, the agencies said. In cases where a transboundary unitization agreement cannot be reached, parties can each produce as much oil that is calculated to lie on its side of the boundary. ’Saudi Aramco Progresses on Shale, Confirms Red Sea Find’ Saudi Aramco has made significant progress developing its shale gas reserves and will begin using shale gas for domestic industrial projects, the company said in its 2013 annual review. The company said its unconventional gas program became fully operational in 2013, 2 years after it launched a program to develop unconventional gas in the frontier Northern Region, offering new resources for the country’s energy needs. Saudi Aramco is now ready to commit shale gas for the development of a 1,000-MW power plant that will feed a massive phosphate mining and manufacturing project. “Saudi Arabia will be among the first countries outside North America to use shale gas for domestic power generation,” the company said in the annual review.

Manifestations cliniques chez les sujets exposés à un accident toxique environnemental (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire 2006)

In 2006, 528 tons of petroleum toxic waste have been released in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) during a major environmental accident. This study was aimed to describe the clinical manifestations provoked by these toxic waste. We have analysed the records of patients admitted to the university hospital of Cocody (Abidjan) following exposure to toxic waste. All the information were recorded on specific files or on notification files created by the physicians of the National Institute of Public Health, the authority charged with the supervision of this exercise. The files were completed by the physician in the course of the examination of the patient. Over a period of 3-month-period, 10,598 patients were examined. The clinical manifestations affected all age groups. They were dominated by respiratory symptoms: pulmonary (74.5%) and upper respiratory (31.0%). Pulmonary symptoms included cough (48.8%), chest pain (37.9%), dyspnoea (9.5%) and a few cases of hemoptysis. Digestive symptoms mainly comprised abdominal pain (36.2%), diarrhea (23.0%), abdominal distension (19.9%) and vomiting (9.9%). The other symptoms were neurological, ophthalmic, cardiovascular and gynaecological. More than 96% of patients presented with at least two symptoms. The respiratory symptoms were significantly more frequent in patients over the age of 17 while diarrhea and vomiting were more often found in patients less than 17 years old. Chest pain was significantly more common in men while abdominal pain and vomiting predominated in women (P=0.001). The clinical consequences of toxic waste exposure were varied and sometimes serious. A medium- and long-term evaluation of the subjects is required.

Oil in the environment: legacies and lessons of the Exxon Valdez oil spill

List of contributors Prologue Acknowledgments A bibliographic note David K. Johnson and Laura R. Rustin List of acronyms Part I. Introduction and Background: 1. Introduction and background John A. Wiens 2. The phases of an oil spill and scientific studies of spill effects Paul D. Boehm, Erich R. Gundlach and David S. Page Part II. Oil in the Environment: 3. Oil in the water column Paul D. Boehm, Jerry M. Neff and David S. Page 4. Surveying oil on the shoreline Edward H. Owens and P. Douglas Reimer 5. Ancient sites and emergency response: cultural resource protection Chris B. Wooley and James C. Haggarty 6. Fate of oil on shorelines David S. Page, Paul D. Boehm, John S. Brown, Erich R. Gundlach and Jerry M. Neff 7. Understanding subsurface contamination using conceptual and mathematical models Gary A. Pope, Kimberly D. Gordon and James R. Bragg 8. Removal of oil from shorelines: biodegradation and bioremediation Ronald M. Atlas and James R. Bragg Part III. Biological Effects: 9. Cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) as a biomarker in oil spill assessments James T. Oris and Aaron P. Roberts 10. Assessing effects and recovery from environmental accidents Keith R. Parker, John A. Wiens, Robert H. Day and Stephen M. Murphy 11. Shoreline biota Erich R. Gundlach, David S. Page, Jerry M. Neff and Paul D. Boehm 12. Oiling effects on pink salmon Ernest L. Brannon, Matthew A. Cronin, Al W. Maki, Larry L. Moulton and Keith R. Parker 13. Pacific herring Walter H. Pearson, Ralph A. Elston, Karen Humphrey and Richard B. Deriso 14. Oil and marine birds in a variable environment John A. Wiens, Robert H. Day and Stephen M. Murphy 15. Sea otters: trying to see the forest for the trees since Exxon Valdez David L. Garshelis and Charles B. Johnson Part IV. Assessing Oil Spill Effects and Ecological Recovery: 16. Characterizing ecological risks, significance, and recovery Mark A. Harwell, John H. Gentile and Keith R. Parker Part V. Conclusions: 17. Science and oil spills: the broad picture John A. Wiens Index.

The Regulatory Potential of Financial Security to Reduce Environmental Risk

This article argues that requiring operators to hold financial security, such as insurance, bonds or guarantees, to cover their environmental liabilities offers considerable regulatory potential to restrict the incentives for environmental irresponsibility created by the doctrine of limited liability. It is contended that this regulatory potential derives from the fact that the incentive structures created by various financial security measures could motivate operators to reduce their environmental risk, this being defined as the probability that their activities will cause an environmental accident. It is concluded that the measures which appear to exhibit the greatest potential to reduce environmental risk do so through the contractual governance of the operator’s behaviour and the provision of economic incentives to improve safety levels and/or financial standing. This finding raises the prospect of third party providers of financial security functioning as ‘surrogate’ regulators of the operator’s activities. In doing so, they may augment the monitoring and enforcement capabilities of public regulators, thereby creating a more robust regulatory regime.

On the Joint Use of Safety Regulation and Civil Liability to Promote Safe Management of Hazardous Operations: A French Case Study

The aim of this article is to analyze the precise role of environmental civil liability in France. We do so by focusing on data from France, and claim that judges in fact seize hold of the possibility of combining regulation and civil liability. In other words, civil liability and regulation are complementary because they promote a duty of care in different ways. Moreover, judges and regulators interact; they provide each other with relevant information that is mutually beneficial for the maintenance of standards. Based on a unique database – that gathers all the litigations concerning environmental accidents judged by the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) from 1956 to 2010 – we conclude that judges heavily rely on prior regulation, especially in cases of causal uncertainty. We argue that particularly in those cases where liability would traditionally be weak, courts tend to rely on breaches of regulation as evidence of increased risk of an activity by the perpetrator. On the other hand, judges can hold regulators liable when regulators did not monitor a regulated plant and this threat provides regulators with incentives to design and to apply stringent standards over risky activities. For these reasons, we conclude that regulation and civil liability should be jointly used to promote smart interdependencies that mitigate civil liability and regulatory failures.