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| Volume 3, issue #20 - 24-07-1998 | |
May 28, 1998 The oil industry is continuing to make strides in its environmental track record, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said in its sixth annual Petroleum Industry Environmental Performance (PIEP) report.
The PIEP report, which uses both government data and API member data, assesses performance in workplace safety, chemical releases, refinery waste management, oil spills in U.S. waters, underground storage tank (UST) compliance, used engine oil recycling, gasoline vapour controls and U.S. environmental expenditures.
On workplace safety, as calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, API said oil industry-related injuries or illnesses fell 19 % from 1987 to 1996 to 4.8 per 100 full-time workers, a better performance than the 11 % decline for the entire U.S. private sector to 7.4 injuries per 100 full-time workers.
Measuring refinery chemical releases, based on the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and API estimates for 1996, the PIEP reportshowed a 10 % decline in releases from 1995 to 1996, bringing the decline from 1988 to 32 % for those chemicals that have been on the TRI list throughout the period.
However, releases of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) have shown a noticeable increase since 1988, with the 1992-93 period revealing a jump of 48 % to 3.16 million pounds, marking the introduction of oxygenated winter fuels in November 1992.
In 1996, MTBE releases totalled 3.14 mm pounds, with 90 % of that going straight into the air.
Release of TRI chemicals classified as carcinogens fell 24 % from 1995 to 1996 to less than 4.3 mm pounds.
Releases of benzene, a notable carcinogen, were reduced by 50 % from 1988 to 1996, as refiners were estimated to have only released 3.04 mm pounds of benzene in 1996.
On refinery wastes, domestic refiners helped reduce their discharge by increasing their recycling efforts. From 1988 to 1996, refinery recycling of residual waste doubled to 60 %, while treatment of residual waste declined to
22 % and disposal fell to 18 %.
And while the number of oil spills in U.S. waters have been declining -- falling by 900 between 1995 and 1996 -- government data showed that 1996 was a bad year in terms of volume.
In 1996, an increase in larger spills brought the year's oil spill tally to 3.2 mm gallons, up from 1995's record low of 1.2 mm gallons.
However, split into two 5-year periods, the average amount of oil spilled between 1992 and 1996 was 2.4 mm gallons -- half the average for 1987-91 even without taking into consideration the massive Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.
Examining UST compliance, the report indicated that at the end of July 1997, 85 % of tanks reported to API were in compliance. The federal UST compliance deadline is Dec. 22.
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