Pollution from pipelines

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5785200

During the 1980s, over 3,900 spills from land-based pipelines released nearly 20 million gallons of oil into U.S. waters-almost twice as much as was released by the March 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Although the Department of Transportation is responsible for preventing water pollution from petroleum pipelines, GAO found that it has not established a program to prevent such pollution. DOT has instead delegated this responsibility to the Coast Guard, which has a program to stop water pollution from ships, but not from pipelines. This paper reports that, in the absence of any federal program to prevent water pollution from pipelines, both the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency have taken steps to plan for and respond to oil spills, including those from pipelines, as required by the Clean Water Act. The Coast Guard cannot, however, adequately plan for or ensure a timely response to pipeline spills because it generally is unaware of specific locations and operators of pipelines.

• Research Organization: General Accounting Office, Washington, DC (United States). Resources, Community and Economic Development Div.
• OSTI ID: 5785200
• Report Number(s): GAO/RCED-91-60
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OIL SPILLS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
PETROLEUM
PIPELINES
LEAKS
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
PLANNING
US CLEAN WATER ACT
US COAST GUARD
US DOT
US EPA
WATER POLLUTION
WATER TREATMENT PLANTS
CONTROL
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
LAWS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION LAWS
US ORGANIZATIONS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
022000 - Petroleum- Transport
Handling
& Storage
294002 - Energy Planning & Policy- Petroleum
540320 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)