Report: Lax Laws Leaving Ohio Vulnerable to Pipeline Oil Spills
Mary Kuhlman, Managing Editor
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lax laws are leaving Ohio and other Midwest states vulnerable to pipeline oil spills, according to a new report.
There are more than 26,000 miles of hazardous-liquid pipelines across the Great Lakes States, 3000 of which are in Ohio. And a legal analysis written by Sara Gosman, water resources attorney with the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes office, exposes gaps in laws that leave communities vulnerable to future oil pollution.
Gosman says, for example, that Ohio has no specific laws related to pipelines.
"There is no oversight of routes of oil pipelines. The state is not imposing safety standards of its own on pipelines within the state and it's not overseeing interstate pipelines."
Gosman says also that Ohio does not require any spill response plans to be submitted to the state.
She says pipeline safety is a problem that has remained under the radar for far too long.
"There's an old adage: 'Out of sight, out of mind.' Oil pipelines are out of sight but it doesn't mean the risks of these pipelines should be out of mind. And Ohioans at the state level, in communities, the public, should be making sure that they are really minding the risks posed by pipelines."
The report recommends several policy changes at the state and federal level to prevent future oil spills, including laws that consider the effects of oil pipelines on the Great Lakes Basin as a whole and that protect all areas that are environmentally sensitive to oil pollution. Additionally, it suggests pipeline information be publicly available and consistent with national security interests.
From 2007 through 2011, there were 277 hazardous liquid pipeline accidents in the region, including the historic Marshall spill in Michigan that released more than 800,000 gallons of crude into waterways, raising health concerns and killing wildlife.
Read the report at www.nwf.org.
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