Prevention

Louisiana’s natural resources are susceptible to oil spill injuries from a variety of sources. Among them are shipping, land-based oil fields, oil platforms in state waters, oil storage facilities, oil terminals/ports, crude or refined oil pipelines, oil refineries, abandoned vessels, pits, reservoirs, and other industries using oil in their operations. The primary objective of the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office (LOSCO) Prevention Program is to prevent the occurrence of unauthorized discharges of oil that impact Louisiana’s resources.

While planning, training, participation in drills, and public awareness all serve to prevent oil spills from happening, LOSCO recognized early on that the widespread, aging oil and gas infrastructure in Louisiana creates a potential major source for oil spills. With 100 years of oil and gas development in Louisiana and limited long-term records, a critical need of the Prevention Program has been obtaining a true picture of the scope of the problem. In the past several years, a large component of LOSCO’s Prevention Program has focused on locating potential oil spill locations and assessing the risks associated with these sites. To directly enhance prevention and eliminate the threat of unauthorized discharges, LOSCO initiated the Abandoned Barge and Abandoned Facilities Programs.

Abandoned Barge Program

The Abandoned Barge Program began in 1993 and is aimed at minimizing the threat of an oil spill by locating and removing abandoned barges or vessels that pose a high risk for unauthorized discharge of oil. The first phase of this program consisted of conducting an inventory of the abandoned vessels/barges in the state’s coastal waters and developing a priority ranking for removal. The inventory was finalized in 1996 and identified approximately 800 abandoned vessels/barges of which roughly 200 were characterized as posing a potential pollution problem.

The second phase of the Abandoned Barge Program focuses on the systematic removal of the abandoned vessels/barges. The Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1991 (OSPRA), La. Rev. Stat. 30:2451 et seq., authorizes up to one million dollars per year for the removal of abandoned or derelict vessels/barges in Louisiana’s coastal waters. To maximize its resources, LOSCO established a partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to remove the abandoned oil-bearing vessels/barges and eliminate the threat of a potential discharge. Removal of the oil-bearing vessels/barges is being done through a cooperative effort known as the Joint Operating Procedures (JOP) Program. The procedure calls for a determination of potential owners/operators and, if the owner/operator cannot be identified, the cleanup of the vessels/barges by the federal agencies. Subsequent removal of the cleaned vessels/barges is done by either the state or federal agencies depending on the potential for midnight dumping. Where the threat of midnight dumping can be confirmed or is significant, vessels/barges removal is the responsibility of the federal partners in the JOP; in the absence of such a threat removal of vessels/barges becomes the responsibility of the state. While several barges have been removed through the JOP, the program has prompted many owners to remove vessels on a voluntary basis.

Abandoned Facilities Program

In 1992, LOSCO initiated the Abandoned Facilities Program to locate and remove structures, pits, and wells that pose a high risk for unauthorized discharge of oil. A total of approximately 25,000 facilities, pits, sumps, or reservoirs in the Louisiana coastal area have been inventoried and evaluated to determine the sites that pose the highest risk to human health and safety, environment, and wildlife habitat through actual or potential discharge of oil. The majority of the abandoned sites consisted of wells (60%), facilities (15%), and tank batteries (8%). The remaining sites were classified as manifold headers, metering stations, docks, rigs, and pits.

The Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1991 (OSPRA), La. Rev. Stat. 30:2451 et seq. authorizes up to two million dollars per year for the abatement of unauthorized discharges of oil from abandoned facilities or structures in Louisiana. LOSCO established a partnership with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources/Office of Conservation (LDNR/OC) to plug abandoned wells that pose a high risk for unauthorized discharge of oil and eliminate the threat of a potential discharge from these sites. This joint venture has resulted in the plugging and abandonment of many wells. In addition, LOSCO recently expanded the abandoned barges/vessels JOP to incorporate abandoned facilities as well. Our allies in this ongoing program include the LDNR/OC, the USEPA, the USCG, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

Related Links