Speaker: Professor Roger Green
Date: 4 July 2012
Time: 9.30 a.m.
Venue: Meeting room 107
School of Biological Sciences
School of Biological Sciences
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Title: Dispersants use in oil spill response – lessons learned?
Abstract: I discuss the use of chemical dispersants in oil spill response. There are two aspects: efficacy and toxicity. First, do chemical dispersants work, that is, do they significantly increase dispersion of oil under realistic natural conditions? Under what conditions? What kinds of oil? Do they enhance subsequent biodegradation of oil? (Dispersion and enhancement of biodegradation are often assumed without any real evidence.) How narrow is the window for effective dispersants use? The effectiveness of conventional and currently available dispersants is poor at low salinities (below 20 o/oo), and weather conditions severely restrict spill response using dispersants.
And second, if they do work, what will be the toxic effects of the chemically dispersed oil and oil-dispersant mixtures? Recent laboratory and field evidence suggests that surprisingly low levels of CEWAF (Chemically Enhanced Water Accommodated Fraction) of oil are toxic to fish larvae & juveniles. Normal development is especially affected. Recent dispersant use world-wide also has relevance and provides context – for example the April 2010 sea bottom blowout of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, the October 2011 Rena spill near Tauranga New Zealand, the December 2011 Shell Niger Delta oil spill, and the August 2010 oil spill near Mumbai. There appears to be no consistent protocol based on good science for decision-making about dispersants use in oil spill response. Most European Union countries forbid dispersants use or make it a secondary response option. In North America both industry and development-oriented governments seem determined to repeat the heavily dispersants-based response (including deep water injection at the wellhead) to the 2012 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is in spite of lack of evidence that the dispersants - especially their injection into deep water at the wellhead - enhanced anything desirable, and plenty of evidence that biological damage was done.
And second, if they do work, what will be the toxic effects of the chemically dispersed oil and oil-dispersant mixtures? Recent laboratory and field evidence suggests that surprisingly low levels of CEWAF (Chemically Enhanced Water Accommodated Fraction) of oil are toxic to fish larvae & juveniles. Normal development is especially affected. Recent dispersant use world-wide also has relevance and provides context – for example the April 2010 sea bottom blowout of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, the October 2011 Rena spill near Tauranga New Zealand, the December 2011 Shell Niger Delta oil spill, and the August 2010 oil spill near Mumbai. There appears to be no consistent protocol based on good science for decision-making about dispersants use in oil spill response. Most European Union countries forbid dispersants use or make it a secondary response option. In North America both industry and development-oriented governments seem determined to repeat the heavily dispersants-based response (including deep water injection at the wellhead) to the 2012 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This is in spite of lack of evidence that the dispersants - especially their injection into deep water at the wellhead - enhanced anything desirable, and plenty of evidence that biological damage was done.
Short Biography: Prof. Roger Green
Dr. Green is an environmental biologist whose own research emphasizes the use of marine & freshwater invertebrates for biomonitoring. He has also been involved in consulting on study design and statistical analysis of results for numerous impact and monitoring studies of oil spills, oil and gas development, and contaminant and heated effluent discharges. For example he chaired the Design & Statistics Working Group of the Exxon Valdez Trustee Council on damage assessment and restoration studies related to the EV oil spill, from 1989 to 1993. He has conducted environmental study design & analysis workshops in Canada, the U.S., Bermuda, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Dr. Green's 1979 book "Sampling Design and Statistical Methods for Environmental Biologists" (John Wiley & Sons) is well known and still widely used. In 1999 he received a "Twentieth Century Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Statistical Ecology, Environmental Statistics, Environmental and Ecological Assessment and Risk Assessment". He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Western Ontario, and a Research Affiliate with the Environment and Natural Resources Institute of the University of Alaska (Anchorage) and with Trent University's Watershed Studies Graduate Program. He has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council since 2003, and in this capacity he is also a member of several PWSRCAC Project Teams e.g. on Dispersants, on Long Term Monitoring, and on Invasive Species. In May 2003 he was the keynote speaker and rapporteur for an international workshop in Halifax Nova Scotia on offshore oil & gas environmental monitoring, and for several decades has been on environmental monitoring oversight committees re. Atlantic Canada offshore oil operations (currently the White Rose Advisory Group). In Oct-Nov 2003 he was invited to and attended a NOAA workshop in Durham New Hampshire recommending research to prepare for the next big oil spill. He has recently been retained to advise the legal team seeking damages from BP and other companies re. the recent Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He was a Visiting Professor at University Science Malaysia from late 2000 to early 2002, and in September 2004 was an invited keynote speaker there at an international conference on ecological modeling. He regularly attends conferences such as: International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species (ICAIS), Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), International Coral Reefs Symposium (ICRS), Arctic Marine Oil Spill Program (AMOP) meeting, Aquatic Toxicity Workshop (ATW), the marine Benthic Ecology Meeting (BEM), and the freshwater and estuarine North American Benthological Society annual meetings.
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