Human Factors in Oil Spills
New Report Analyzes the Human Element in Oil Spills
New research points to a need to focus on the human factors that can contribute to oil spill incidents.
Congress created Citizens Regional Advisory Councils (RCAC) after the grounding of the T/V Exxon Valdez at Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound to provide oversight of the oil industry in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90). A primary goal of these councils is to reduce marine pollution. The group that oversees the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Terminal in Port Valdez is the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council (PWSRCAC).
Prince William Sound RCAC commissioned a study called "An Assessment of the Role of Human Factors in Oil Spills from Vessels", which was released in September 2006. Nuka Research and Planning Group of Homer, Alaska, conducted the research. The study focused on human factors that cause oil spills. Nuka Research conducted a research review, compiled a summary of accident data, and gathered information on international practices in use to document the problem.
What factors should be considered in preventing human factors from causing oil spills?
- 80 percent of oil spills and marine accidents are the result of human error.
- Technology can reduce severity of a spill, but may not help prevent one from occurring. Technology increases systems complexity, induces operator error, and does nothing to break the chain of events leading to an event.
- Improved technology does nothing to break the chain of events that lead to an oil spill occurring.
What opportunities can be taken to address human factors that result in oil spills?
- Improve and standardize data collection that identifies the human factors the contribute to oil spills.
- Create a system that compiles near miss reports that could have caused an oil spill.
- Promote and acknowledge best management practices that could prevent or mitigate human factors that cause spills.
- Incorporate human factors in oil spill risk assessments.
- Review the impact of fatigue and crew endurance on the likelihood of spill incidents.
Reducing human error is just one part of Oil Spill Response. If you would like to read the research paper prepared by Nuka Research on human factors and oil spill prevention, visit the PWSRCAC web page to download the complete 1.1 megabyte Adobe PDF document.
