If you want to help orca, salmon, and all the fish that require healthy marine waters to thrive, we have an opportunity for you to make a difference. The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is in the midst of a rulemaking process that is intended to reduce threats to Southern Resident killer whales by improving the safety of oil transportation.

We all know that accidents happen. In many cases it is not a matter of if, but when. That is the case with oil and fuel spills. And when an accident happens, we need to make sure that effective mechanisms are in place to minimize the impacts and respond immediately.

Oil transfer operations occur at anchorage areas (refueling an anchored vessel or transferring cargo from an anchored vessel to another vessel) and at terminal and refinery wharfs. In 2003, an over-the-water oil transfer operation in Edmonds went awry, spilling 5,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into Puget Sound. Because the delivering and receiving vessels were not pre-boomed (to contain the spilled oil) and also because the spill happened in the middle of the night, hours elapsed before oil spill response containment and recovery could be initiated. In less than 24 hours, almost all of the oil had moved ashore. The spill damaged 400 acres of the Suquamish Indian Reservation’s prime cultural and environmental lands, including salt-water marsh, old growth timber, beaches, and clam beds.

As a result of this incident, Washington State enacted requirements for advance notice of oil transfer operations, which helps Ecology regulate these activities and have the information needed for spill response. Regulations were also created for pre-booming oil transfer operations. Pre-booming is an important oil spill mitigation measure; if a spill happens, it is contained and more easily collected before it can cause extensive impacts.

Right now, Ecology is amending regulations to improve oil transportation safety associated with facility oil handling standards, vessel oil transfer advance notice, and containment requirements to reduce threats to Southern Resident killer whales.

The rulemaking updates some of the requirements for oil transfer operations and reporting requirements. Unfortunately, the rulemaking doesn’t address the fact that pre-booming is only required for oil transfer operations that occur at transfer rates greater than 500 gallons per minute - a loophole too big to let stand.

Ecology is also establishing new decommissioning requirements for out of service oil storage tanks and oil transfer pipelines, and requiring additional seismic protection measures to help prevent oil spills during earthquakes. This rulemaking will require seismic updates for all transfer pipelines and storage tanks, but not for secondary containment systems built before 1994. Most of the WA state refineries’ secondary containment systems were built before 1994 and they pose an unacceptable threat to Washington waters.

You only have until August 31 to tell Ecology that this rulemaking should:

• Require ALL secondary containment structures (that prevent spilled oil from reaching our waterways) to withstand seismic forces;

• Require ALL oil transfer operations to be pre-boomed (when safe and effective to do so); and

• Restrict ALL oil transfer operations to daylight hours, especially when it’s not safe or effective to pre-boom.

Industry is pushing hard to minimize the requirements being imposed on them, which means we need to show strong support from the everyday people who want to protect our waters, shorelines, and wildlife. Please take a moment to urge Ecology to reduce threats to our marine ecosystem from oil transportation, send an email to Ecology now!

You can learn more about this rulemaking here. Thank you for taking action to improve the safety of oil transportation!