Ashland Oil Spill: A state of environmental perspective
- Pennsylvania Dept. of environmental Resources, Harrisburg (USA)
The Ashland Oil Spill, while certainly not the largest in history, may have been the most severe in terms of its potential impact on water supplies. This paper presents a case history of the spill from initial notification to the long-term environmental clean-up activities and underscores the need for additional regulation of above-ground storage tanks. On January 2, 1988, a tank containing 3.9 million gallons of diesel fuel collapsed and discharged three quarters of a million gallons into the Monongahela River in Floreffe, PA. The spill resulted in severe short-term environmental damage, the closing of a major inland port, and threatened the drinking water supplies of 500,000 people in Pennsylvania. The PA Dept. of Environmental Resources (DER) staff worked closely with local authorities to first contain the diesel fuel on site and then to provide additional warnings to downstream users as more information about the size of the spill became available. With the deployment of 20,000 feet of a river-wide containment boom, eleven vacuum trucks, three cranes, and over 150 people, about 30% of the product which entered the river through a 24-inch pipe was collected. One week after the spill, all PA water plants were back on line and treating water, albeit with modified processes. The Ashland tank failure led to numerous reviews of the response to the incident, the causes and effects of the incident, and the regulatory requirements for above-ground tank storage.
- OSTI ID:
- 7128148
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the New England Water Works Association; (USA), Journal Name: Journal of the New England Water Works Association; (USA) Vol. 102:4; ISSN 0028-4939; ISSN JNEWA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
020900* -- Petroleum-- Environmental Aspects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
CONTAINMENT
DIESEL FUELS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FEDERAL REGION III
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS RECOVERY
NORTH AMERICA
OIL POLLUTION CONTAINMENT
OIL SPILLS
PENNSYLVANIA
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLLUTION
PROCESSING
RECOVERY
RIVERS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WATER POLLUTION