Washington State Upset at Chevron's Refusal of a Spontaneous Oil-Spill Drill Exercise

Published Dec 16, 2005 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

Jay Manning of the Department of Ecology said that no company has ever refused to participate in an emergency oil spill drill. Manning and other state officials will seek a law that will allow the department and state to fine oil companies or bar them from operating in Washington, when they refuse to participate in emergency drills.

Chevron said it is nothing more than a misunderstanding, because the company feared that the drill might be unsafe.

"The company said no," said Manning. "We've been doing this for seven years. We've never had a company refuse to participate."

Oil companies transport over 15 billion gallons of oil in and out of the Puget Sound and on the Columbia River each year, and all transporters of oil are supposed to be ready to respond to an oil spill on a moments notice. Each company is also supposed to have an up-to-date oil spill response plan.

The State of Washington, like California, Oregon, and Alaska, regularly conducts spontaneous emergency oil spill response drills?ranging from random paperwork checks to unannounced fake spills, in which companies go through all the steps they would in an emergency. There are as many as 300 simple drills a year. This year, the state held a half-dozen of the complex drills.

The state said that Chevron had been warned in September that a surprise drill would take place before the end of the year.

Under current law, the state has little recourse to fine a company not willing to participate in emergency spill response drills. Ecology officials said they plan to ask the Legislature next spring to change that.