Oil Spills in U.S. Water--Number and Volume statistics

[Based on reported discharges into U.S. navigable waters, including territorial waters (extending 3 to 12 miles from the coastline), tributaries, the contiguous zone, onto shoreline, or into other waters that threaten the marine environment. Data found in Marine Safety Management System]


											Spill volume				Spill volume
Spill characteristic	Number of spills						Number of spills				(1,000 gallons)				(1,000 gallons)

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998


Total	8,177	8,569	9,491	8,972	8,960	9,038	9,335	8,624	8,315	7,915,007	1,875,952	1,875,667	2,067,388	2,489,273	2,638,229	3,117,831	942,574	885,303

Size of spill (gallons):
1-100	7,541	7,982	8,823	8,470	8,440	8,614	8,904	8,299	7,962	84,043	82,091	97,213	74,068	77,961	48,936	43,434	39,082	38,093
101-1,000	447	437	517	370	371	324	322	243	259	154,858	156,215	178,792	129,363	130,979	115,140	114,831	81,895	86,606
1,001-3,000	80	67	75	72	79	52	57	40	54	140,140	118,410	130,916	131,918	151,756	91,426	102,008	78,117	96,743
3,001-5,000	34	28	24	22	22	19	20	14	15	131,861	117,238	95,154	93,815	88,479	73,598	86,389	58,016	64,609
5,001-10,000	22	26	22	19	23	9	12	15	15	157,762	192,948	160,369	140,239	165,824	63,853	92,163	109,288	108,148
10,001-50,000	34	25	21	12	18	15	15	11	8	717,809	401,150	395,174	230,421	437,238	354,824	351,106	282,176	216,335
50,001-100,000	11	2	7	4	3	2	0	1	0	734,618	184,000	551,225	310,200	290,342	155,950	0	84,000	0
100,000-1,000,000	7	2	2	3	4	3	5	1	2	1,893,916	623,900	266,825	957,364	1,146,694	1,734,502	2,327,900	210,000	274,769
1,000,000 and over	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3,900,000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Waterbody:
Atlantic ocean	92	109	129	132	206	267	119	87	109	13,400	9,009	21,450	14,713	799,549	48,313	27,980	40,857	6,674
Pacific ocean	480	446	594	649	666	648	491	505	644	624,494	199,306	133,704	262,292	128,752	69,053	29,209	32,841	192,775
Gulf of Mexico	1,834	1,977	1,974	1,763	1,350	1,485	2,403	2,341	2,190	4,115,264	100,702	363,279	53,265	205,151	253,040	45,145	105,462	181,372
Great Lakes	194	191	229	256	240	282	228	156	119	129,131	5,103	43,489	10,602	15,984	3,103	3,507	4,311	3,006
Lakes	11	14	21	19	16	26	19	29	25	383	1,256	377	2,300	318	92	52	210,270	63
Rivers and canals	1,749	2,010	1,999	1,744	1,814	1,849	1,984	1,821	1,944	1,775,142	430,905	315,908	942,114	383,171	1,156,002	475,550	182,676	280,651
Bays and sounds	988	938	969	1,004	1,062	1,109	793	811	891	263,436	143,723	209,916	418,137	72,022	41,004	1,092,207	46,450	24,234
Harbors	940	916	1,241	1,095	1,016	1,176	992	858	790	455,108	687,563	245,977	51,842	346,649	148,229	288,252	45,932	97,223
Other	1,889	1,968	2,335	2,310	2,590	2,196	2,306	2,016	1,603	538,649	298,385	541,567	312,123	537,677	919,393	1,155,929	273,775	99,305

Location:
Internal/headlands waters	3,845	4,087	4,412	4,091	4,108	4,364	3,939	3,596	3,688	2,613,902	772,248	817,967	1,423,769	816,427	1,340,457	1,025,376	489,056	397,446
Coastal (0-3 miles)	933	1,052	1,120	784	861	1,112	1,055	988	1,226	604,197	616,705	251,050	79,393	884,942	115,929	46,604	67,274	110,747
Contiguous zone (3-12 miles)	136	151	171	338	322	225	407	380	223	30,167	5,791	11,434	75,314	9,124	100,829	15,198	16,280	10,818
Ocean (12-200 miles)	425	1,109	1,267	1,294	894	761	1,148	1,121	1,172	3,999,262	137,133	175,235	130,679	199,240	89,587	31,474	78,181	89,099
Ocean general	964	222	182	121	167	331	477	522	392	93,587	39,086	70,419	36,865	13,663	56,126	840,666	19,588	177,327
General/other	1,874	1,948	2,339	2,344	2,608	2,245	2,309	2,017	1,614	573,892	304,989	549,562	321,368	565,877	935,301	1,158,513	272,195	99,866

Source:
Tankship	249	220	193	172	172	148	122	124	104	4,977,251	92,334	118,075	69,541	69,694	125,491	219,311	22,429	56,673
Tankbarge	457	428	322	314	393	353	313	252	220	992,025	241,346	149,212	697,653	955,582	1,101,938	1,163,258	165,649	248,089
All other vessels	1,779	1,780	4,795	4,944	4,681	4,977	5,151	4,971	4,848	417,882	362,809	398,145	409,963	308,343	396,724	298,451	192,801	316,473
Facilities	2,287	2,389	2,045	2,320	2,258	586	509	838	937	1,059,302	445,986	504,600	350,141	667,016	868,900	406,384	204,935	166,269
Pipelines	149	105	36	35	55	30	17	32	45	316,928	49,382	200,396	362,399	62,340	11,894	978,392	224,122	47,863
All other non-vessels	148	117	815	826	796	500	552	486	571	32,242	10,068	235,839	145,796	348,577	77,428	23,527	72,208	32,584
Unknown	3,108	3,530	1,285	361	605	2,444	2,671	1,921	1,590	119,377	674,027	269,400	31,895	77,721	55,854	28,508	60,430	17,352

Source: U.S. Coast Guard, http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/nmc/response/stats/Summary.htm (accessed 09 February 2000).

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/nmc/response/stats/aa.htm

* Oil spill statistics for each year are presented in tabular format at the beginning of each section and include the following information: total number of spills and total volume in each category; mean (average), median and maximum spill size; and percentages.

Spill Size - spills are sorted into nine, separate volume ranges (1-100 gallons, 101-1,000 gallons, 1,001-3,000 gallons, 3,001-5,000 gallons, ..., 100,001-1,000,000 gallons, over 1,000,000 gallons).

Waterbody - 223 individual waterbodies (Delaware River, San Francisco Bay, Lower Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico, Bayou La Batre, etc.) were sorted into nine categories that include the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, rivers and canals, harbors, bays and sounds, lakes, and other. In past publications, many rivers, harbors, and tributaries were coded so that spills in those waterbodies were represented as having occurred in the ocean or gulf to which they were connected. This is no longer the case. Waterbodies included in each of these categories are listed in Appendix A.

Location - categories include internal/headlands (rivers, harbors, intercoastal waterways, etc.), coastal (territorial waters (0-3 miles)), contiguous zone (3-12 miles), ocean (12-200 miles), ocean general, and other.

Major source and detailed source - 53 listed sources in the detailed source table are sorted into seven broad categories in the major source table. Major sources include tankships, tank barges, all other vessels, facilities, pipelines, all other non-vessel sources, and unknown or not elsewhere classified (NEC). Because the detailed sources are too numerous to represent graphically, only the major source categories are presented graphically.

Vessel/Facility Operation (through 1993 only). - 41 individual, coded operations were sorted into ten categories that were reported as ongoing operations at the time of the spill. They include: pumping bilges, bunkering (refueling), tanker/facility operation, cargo transfer/receiving, movement in congested waterway, lightering, underway/transporting, pipeline, other known operation, or unknown operation. Operations data represents information that may be useful for oil transportation risk assessment. Specific operations within these categories are also listed in Appendix A. After 1993, this table is not provided, because of changes in the data collection system.

Oil Type - 174 different petroleum and non-petroleum oils were sorted into the following six general categories: crude oils, heavy fuel oils (#4, #5, & #6 fuel oils), intermediate fuel oils (diesels, light crudes,) gasoline (automotive and aviation), other petroleum oils (gas-oil, asphalt, etc.), and non-petroleum oils (vegetable oils, coconut oil, etc.).

*

The passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA)provided the U.S. Coast Guard with statutory authority to regulate oil pollution prevention and response activities in United States' waterways. The FWPCA, also known as the Clean Water Act, requires that any discharge of an oil or hazardous substance in a harmful quantity be reported to the "appropriate agency of the United States". Executive Order 11735, dated August 3, 1973, designated the U.S. Coast Guard as the appropriate agency. As a result, the number of spills reported to the Coast Guard increased dramatically. It is from this point that the Coast Guard began building the database, now known as the Marine Safety Management System (MSMS), at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC.

MSMS data represents discharges reported to the Coast Guard by responsible parties (a requirement of FWPCA), by other private parties, government agencies, or as discovered and reported by Coast Guard personnel. All cases in MSMS fall within Coast Guard jurisdiction, as provided for in the National Contingency Plan (Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 300). Included in the file are all reported discharges into U.S. navigable waters, including territorial waters (extending to three miles from the coastline), tributaries, the contiguous zone (extending from three to twelve miles from the coastline), onto shorelines, or into other waters that threaten the marine environment of the United States. Future adjustments will incorporate the new language for the U.S. territorial sea which is now set at twelve nautical miles from the coastline. MSMS has evolved since 1973 to meet Coast Guard requirements for improved data collection, analysis and interpretation capabilities and to facilitate safe, environmentally protective management of the nation's waterways. MSMS is actually a combination of three database systems:

* The Pollution Incident Reporting System (PIRS)(1973-1985) - PIRS was established in 1973 to facilitate Coast Guard collection of reported spill data, as assigned by Executive Order 11735, and provided the basis for the database system that has been successively modified to the present time.

* The Marine Safety Information System (MSIS-MP Fragment)(1985-1991) - PIRS was replaced by MSIS on 1 October 1985 to improve the program's ability to collect and manage critical incident data, not only reported pollution data, that is entered directly into the system by field units. MSIS greatly expanded the number of data fields in the database.

* Modified MSIS system ("MIN-MOD"-Marine Investigations Module) (1991-Present). In 1991, the marine investigations module of MSIS, MIN-MOD, was incorporated into the database to augment the MSIS-MP Fragment and facilitate, among other things, Coast Guard identification and analysis of contributing factors to marine casualties and pollution incidents.

*

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/390_oil_spills_in_u_s_water.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.