Regretfully, perhaps ironically, an oil spill occurred Sunday in the Houston Ship Channel in Texas. Ironic because it’s nearly 25 years to the day of infamous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska that occurred on March 24th 1989.
Like that earlier spill, much of the focus in the aftermath of this latest incident is on the local wildlife. According to a statement from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department there could be hundreds or thousands of birds of various species in the area affected by the spill.
The Advance has worked to keep abreast on the issue of oil transportation. It is an issue that has found itself in the headlines regularly of late.
There has been a significant increase in rail accidents involving oil – Quebec, New Brunswick, Alabama, and most recently in Pennsylvania. In fact, more oil spilled as a result of railroad accidents in 2013 than the past 40 years combined. Recently, as a result of all the train derailments and subsequent explosions, the National Transportation Safety Board urged that oil trains be routed away from population centers.
The Oil Transportation Safety Act, an act passed by House during the 2014 session, but killed by the Republican-controlled Senate, not only pushed for transparency in oil shipments over our railways, but also attempted to mitigate the dangers of oil shipments in our waterways by incentivizing proper tugging of barges — something that is shown to cut down on these very accidents.
This most recent accident will undoubtedly keep the issue of safe oil transportation on the legislative agenda. Watch this space.