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Oil Spill
Could a Valdez Type Accident
Ruin Tampa Bay?
By Bob Andelman
(Originally written in May 1989 for the Maddux
Report, this won a Florida Magazine Award.)
A gallon of oil, when it hits water, looks like 50 gallons.
Blood has the same quality -- a cut on the hand can look vicious.
That's why, when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in
Alaska's pristine Prince William Sound, rupturing its storage
tanks and releasing more than 10.9 million gallons of crude oil
into frigid high seas, it looked worse than all the bloodiest
horror movies ever filmed . And it was.
Black goo spread across miles of open water, blanketing beaches,
rocks and anything that it came in contact with. Birds that depend
on the ocean for food were covered with sticky oil and ate contaminated
prey. Fish couldn't breathe because the stuff clogged their gills.
More than 11,640 birds and 607 sea otters -- 20 tons of animals
in all -- have been eradicated by the crude.
The aftermath for the Exxon Corporation, which owns the tanker
in question, was equally messy. An estimated two score of lawsuits
-- including a $2 billion class action suit -- were filed against
it within 60 days; others are in the works. More than 18,000
consumers have cut up their Exxon credit cards and returned them
to the company, some symbolically drenched in oil. The company
wrote off $30 million in first quarter earnings because of the
accident. Anti-Exxon publicity gets worse as cleanup efforts
drag on and horrifying descriptions of the affect of the oil
on wildlife continue.
If that sounds horrifying, it is. What may be worse is that
there isn't an oil company, port authority, government official
or environmentalist who can deny the possibility of a devastating
oil spill occurring in Tampa Bay. And frankly, the idea scares
the hell out of all of them.
"I think we've generally been very, very lucky,"
says University of South Florida marine biologist Joseph L. Simon.
"Damn lucky. We don't take all the precautions we can. It's
greed. We're playing risk-assessment games. I don't consider
these to be science problems. I consider this a political problem.
WE know what's going to happen if you dump acid into the bay.
We know because we've had plenty of opportunity to study these
spills because of Gardinier. It's sort of like a hurricane is
coming. It's not a matter of if, but when. We know at some point
in time there's going to be a major disaster."
Consider these opportunities for calamity:
* Oil is the number one import category at both Port Manatee
and Port of Tampa. Almost every day, an oil-bearing ship enters
Tampa Bay.
* The Belcher 101, carrying oil from Coastal Corp.'s Texas
and Alabama refineries to Manatee, can carry 9.2 million gallons
of petroleum. The Exxon Valdez lost 10.9 million gallons in Prince
William Sound.
* The Florida Power Bartow generating plant at Weedon Island
State Preserve in St. Petersburg and FPL's Manatee plant are
oil burners, relying on tankers and barges to supply them with
millions of barrels a month. The Bartow plant has two docking
areas, one to supply the plant, the other to feed a 31-mile oil
pipeline to the Anclote power plant in Tarpon Springs. The Manatee
plant also relies on a pipeline, this one 14 miles long, from
Port of Tampa. Both represent an uneasy alliance of man's need
and mother's nature. One big spill would instantly wipe out extensive
mangrove and marsh areas.
* Two months ago, two tankers full of oil brushed each other
in Tampa Bay, according to one source. It caused a major panic
but nothing happened.
* Harbor pilots say the new Sunshine Skyway Bridge will not
be an improvement to navigation as long as the crumbling old
bridges remain beside it, continuing the same hazards of the
past. "The likelihood of hitting the bridge is not that
great," says Capt. John C. Timmel, a member of the Tampa
Bay Pilots Association. "But neither was the Valdez."
He says the old bridge is a potential hazard that need not exist.
* Archaic tide and currents charts being used by pilots put
tankers at risk. Since they need "X" amount of water
to bring heavy ships into port and accurate information is spotty,
captains are literally dragging the bottoms of their tankers
along the bottom of the bay.
One marine expert says overall conditions "are like U.S.
19 only out in the big blue sea."
Tampa Bay may not be a crude oil refining or processing destination
like Alaska. But Port Manatee alone sees one enormous tanker
weekly and petroleum barges daily carrying refined oil products
ranging from jet fuel to gasoline and bunker fuel. (Bunker fuel,
used to power tankers themselves, is most akin to crude in its
thick, gooey texture.) Petroleum, in all its forms, is very important
to Tampa Bay ports. It is a high revenue bulk commodity that
helps fund other activities that enable ports to grow.
What would a million gallons of oil look like in Tampa Bay?
Well, you wouldn't miss seeing it.
"A million gallons? Oh, man," says Pat Rennert,
owner of A&A Coastal, which specializes in mopping up spills.
"I can't even describe the mess we'd have. It'd go everywhere.
Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Tampa -- all the way to Hooker's Point.
The whole Tampa Bay. Oh, wow."
Rennert says it costs about $12 to clean up a gallon of oil
on the water. That includes barges with vacuum trucks at $650
an hour, skimmers at $550 an hour, boom rental at $1 per foot
per day, disposal fees of $20,000 and skilled laborers earning
$19 an hour. A million gallon spill would cost at least $12 million
to clean up.
If a catastrophic spill should occur here, experts say it
would not be as difficult to deal with and clean as Prince William
Sound, but the environmental aftermath could be just as deadly
-- in proportion -- to the Alaskan disaster.
Potential for Disaster
First of all, Exxon is not currently importing fuels to either
Port Manatee or Port of Tampa although it has in years past.
There are major differences between the port uses of Tampa
Bay and Prince William Sound in Alaska which lower the comparative
risk of spill here. Most important is that the Valdez port handles
only oil. While oil is the predominant import by category at
both Tampa and Manatee, the ports here also handle phosphate,
scrap metal, newsprint, produce and other commercial items.
"They (Valdez) are the number four port in total tonnage
and all of their tonnage is petroleum," says Nancy Schubert,
director of public and government relations for the Tampa Port
Authority. In 1987, only New Orleans, New York City and Houston
had more combined tonnage; Tampa ranked ninth. "(Valdez)
had no foreign exports and their domestic exports were 101 million
tons. Last year we moved 51 million tons. (Only) 11.7 million
tons is oil. We are not as dependent on petroleum. It's just
not the same skew. The likelihood (of a spill) is not as high."
On the other hand, Prince William Sound doesn't have a Sunshine
Skyway Bridge marking the only channel of entry and exit through
it. The mouth of Tampa Bay has not one, not two, but three oil
ports -- Tampa, Manatee and Weedon Island -- and three bridges,
creating six times the opportunity for mishaps.
When one of the Skyway Bridge spans was hit by a freighter
several years ago and toppled over, ships were backed up in and
out of Tampa Bay for at least 10 days. The channel was not safe
to navigate.
"The same navigational hazards that existed (before the
new bridge was built) still exist because the old Skyway Bridge
has not been demolished," according to Jan Platt Hillsborough
County Commissioner Jan Platt and chairperson of the Tampa Bay
Regional Planning Council's Agency on Bay Management. "We
(the Agency on Bay Management, which she chairs) have taken a
position to eliminate that hazard. There were many safeguards
built into the new Skyway but they're to no advantage because
the old Skyway is still there."
Cathy Palmer, spokesperson for District One of the Florida
Department of Transportation, says that while the Skyway has
been kicked around in the DOT's financial crisis, the high-rise
portions of the old bridge spans are scheduled to be demolished
in the 1990-91 fiscal year. The low-rise at both ends will eventually
be reconditioned into two long fishing piers.
Removing the old bridge is not enough. Harbor pilots want
updated tide and currents information. The last survey was done
over 20 years ago for one month, compared to the modern six month
standard for similar surveys.
"A NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
survey showed the charts were off," says Capt. John Timmel.
"We've for years known what is predicted and what actually
happens is rarely the same."
One solution under discussion is a $150,000 electronic tide
sensor which could transmit simultaneous information to ships
at sea about prevailing conditions. Charleston and the Chesapeake
Bay have such equipment currently in operation.
Tampa Bay is the gateway for petroleum products to central
Florida. Tankers docking at Port Manatee and the Port of Tampa
supply trucks and pipelines delivering kerosene, jet fuel, gasoline,
asphalt, liquid bulk or bunker fuel to destinations east to Orlando,
south to Fort Myers and north to Crystal River. Florida Power
receives 1 million barrels (equal to 42 million gallons) of oil
every month at its Weedon Island plant by 10-20 barges and/or
tanker.
"What tends to increase the likelihood of (an accident)
in Tampa Bay is that as the population increases, the demand
for toxic (products) increases exponentially. That's good for
the economy, right?" wonders USF Professor Simon.
A GATX Terminals Corp. storage tank at Port of Tampa leaked
32,000 gallons of phosphoric acid into Hillsborough Bay in May.
GATX was lucky; despite the accident, it had an emergency plan
in place that worked well to immediately clean and minimize the
effects of the acid spill.
"We really don't view any spill as minor. The fact that
it happens is significant," says George Lowman, director
of communications for Chicago-based GATX Corp., which operates
GATX Terminals Corp. at Port Manatee, Port of Tampa (where it
has 41 tanks, ranging in capacity from 6,500 gallons to 120,000
barrels) and 28 other ports around the world. GATX -- which describes
itself as the largest storage company in North America and has
$2.6 billion in assets -- operates the oil pipeline to Orlando,
which carries jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline.
Another big oil handler, operating out of Port Manatee with
1.6 million barrel capacity, is Houston-based Coastal Corp.,
which owns Belcher Oil and 154 Coastal/Joy gas stations across
Florida. Coastal claims to be the largest seller and mover of
oil in Florida. The company had $8.2 billion in operating revenues
in 1988. Director of Public Relations Wellington Osterloh knows
the harsh realities of working within the fragility of the environment.
"We get tarred and feathered every now and then by a
manatee environmental group," he says, less defensive than
consigned to his fate. "We move something like 750,000 barrels
a day. That represents about five percent of the entire United
States needs for refined products a day. We've been in Florida
for 65 years. Belcher paved the first street in Miami with asphalt."
Like GATX, Coastal says it has its own equipment and plans
to deal with any critical eventuality. "I know you have
a pristine area over there," says Osterloh.
"Companies like GATX that move products that can cause
environmental damage have to be particularly sensitive to an
area like Tampa Bay," says Lowman.
Maybe so. But Jan Platt thinks there needs to be stringent
state and/or federal regulation and inspection of facilities
such as GATX's, Gardinier's and others. "It's my understanding
that it's self-monitoring by the corporations and the regulatory
agencies," she says. "That's a major flaw in the process."
"We have operated safely for 20 years," says Port
Manatee's Steve Tyndal. "But that is not to say (an accident)
couldn't happen. The larger question is, suppose it does happen
-- what do we do? Do we stop importing oil because we had an
accident? Florida is in a tragically unique position. It is totally
reliant on imported fuels. We're the fastest growing state in
the nation. We've got to fuel the autos and industry that attract
people."
Governmental bodies -- from the federal to the local level
-- are taking a fresh look and making noises about the way oil
and other toxic substances are imported and handled. Business
can't help but listen and pay attention. The chances of an accident
may be one in a million, but Alaska was on the short end of that
draw.
"The Valdez has given us a 'Hey, that could happen here'
outlook," says Peter Clark, principal environmental planner
for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. "If we don't
learn from our past mistakes, we're destined to do them again.
It's important to use these past mistakes and resolve them before
they occur here."
Discerning the Culprit
A port official who prefers not to be identified claims that
50 percent of all spills are probably man-made because a captain
does something he shouldn't do.
Certainly that has been the accusation directed against the
Exxon Valdez, where the Capt. Joseph Hazelwood has been accused
of drinking on the job. That left an experienced third mate to
make steering decisions he wasn't licensed or qualified to carry
out.
It's always going be human error that causes spills, says
USF's Joe Simon. "You can't program that out of the system,"
he says. "There's always going to be accidents -- that's
what the word means."
Human foible is blamed for the spill near Ruskin at Port Sutton
by the Howard Starr on Oct. 10, 1979. "That was approximately
20,000 gallons of bunker oil," according to Pat Rennert,
whose A&A Coastal worked on the cleanup operation. "It
was a foreign vessel. The crew -- being so used to doing this
overseas -- they didn't think anything of discharging 20,000
gallons into the sea.
"It was something like Alaska," he says. "(Oil)
was scattered throughout the beaches, five to six inches deep,
some places up to a foot deep. It was heavy, thick oil. A lot
of birds and fish were killed. It was a long, drawn-out process
to retrieve the oil. We had vac (short for vacuum) trucks going
day and night."
So messy and complicated was the spill that it cost $700,000
to clean up. By contrast, however, three months after the Exxon
Valdez spill, Exxon reportedly had spent $200 million on the
cleanup.
Rennert will never forget the sights and sounds of all that
oil.
"Fish would come up to the surface," he says, "get
oil on them and then they couldn't breathe through their gills.
They'd just flop around until they died. When that oil hit the
mangroves, it automatically killed them. They can't withstand
the shock."
There are a number of ways to deal with spills while they
are on the water. Most common -- the court of first resort --
is the "boom." The term is misleading but the method
is usually effective. Teams of boats surround floating oil with
a curtain that corrals the toxic mess. They then will tow the
boom into port or somewhere the fuel can be vacuumed off the
water.
A&A Coastal has several thousand feet of oil spill boom
on hand for emergencies. GATX and Coastal have supplies of their
own; Florida Power has 1,000 feet of boom and two work boats;
other oil companies at Tampa Bay ports may also have a limited
distance of boom. Most have supplemental contracts with containment
companies such as A&A. The Coast Guard has 500 feet of standard
boom and 100 feet of sausage boom, enough to apply a Band-Aid
to a small spill, but no more.
Together, on-hand booms are NOT enough for the clean-up of
a catastrophic spill. "We're looking to the government to
buy several miles of boom in case of a major spill," says
Rennert.
Responsibility for spills of any kind rests with the party
that caused the accident, of course. "He who spills is responsible,"
is the Coast Guard's spillage credo according to Lt. Paul MacDonald,
USCG Marine Safety Officer for Tampa. "We say let's get
it cleaned up -- the responsibility can come later."
But sometimes the person or company is not immediately known
or doesn't step forward. To prevent spreading or further calamity,
the United States Coast Guard (USCG) will often take charge of
immediate cleanup needs, hiring independent contractors to mop
up. Then the Coast Guard and a wide range of other state and
federal agencies will go after the offenders with fines, penalties
and criminal charges.
"Port Manatee is primarily responsible for the area we
call Port Manatee," according to Steve Tyndal. "We
can't be held responsible for shipping in the channels. That's
out of our jurisdiction.
"Naturally," he says "we have a vested interest
in all the shipping channels. If there were a spill anywhere
in Tampa Bay, we would be involved. We have material on hand
-- and have ordered more -- to enhance our ability to handle
a spill. Dave MacDonald (assistant port director) made an interesting
analogy in the wake of Valdez. We were trying to decide what
our response would be. He likened it to an airline crash. Is
it the fault of the airline or the airport? Imagine the worst.
A ship hits the Skyway. Who's at fault? Is it the pilot? The
ship owner? The port? Or the people who demanded the oil in the
first place?"
Tampa Bay would be easier to clean up than Prince William
Sound, if you want to compare apples and oranges. For one thing,
it is much smaller. And Tampa Bay doesn't have rocks like Alaska
and California. It's sandy on the bay bottom and shores which
is supposedly easier to handle; one expert says "you just
scoop it up and take it away."
"In Alaska, they're battling 10-foot seas, impossible
to clean," says MacDonald of the Coast Guard. "In the
bay, we're not going to see that. Our equipment will work better.
And we have warm water and warm air. If you had a spill that
went on for a few days, 50 percent would evaporate. The air pollution
people would be upset, but for my purposes and the water's, it
would work."
Environmental Impact
No spill is a good spill, whether it be oil or phosphoric
acids. Neither does the bay an ounce of positive benefit.
There are small oil spills into the waters of Tampa Bay every
day, some originating with sport boat enthusiasts who splash
a few ounces or gallons into the water while topping off their
tanks. Authorities say that it you multiply those few ounces
or gallons by the thousands of men and women using the bay for
recreation annually, the enormity of minor spills becomes a major
catastrophe.
The Coast Guard responds to an average of one spill a day
and physically cleans up in Tampa Bay once every other month,
usually less than 50 gallons. Add to that the 5 to 25 gallon
spills that port authorities admit are not uncommon, throw in
the rare major spill and you've got a waterway under constant
attack.
Port Manatee sits between the pristine environments of the
Terra Ceia and Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserves. A spill near
either would wipe out mangroves, seagrass and a major habitat
of fish. McKay Bay is an important wintering area for 70 species
of loons, greebs and ducks from throughout North America and
familiar local breeds such as herons, spoonbills and cormorants
-- a daily average usage by 25,000 birds. The birds feed and
live in these waters every year and could be severely damaged
by eating contaminated fish or getting toxic chemicals on their
bodies. And despite heart-warming pictures in the media of waterfowl
being cleaned, environmentalists say only three percent will
survive an oil slick.
"The list goes on and on," says Peter Clark of the
Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, "because our shipping
channel goes right down the middle of the bay."
While refiners say the types of petroleum products commonly
entering the bay such as jet fuel and kerosene are light and
likely to evaporate quickly, environmentalists such as Rich Paul
of the National Audobon Society believe highly refined oils are
also more toxic. Not that he thinks any less of crude or bunker
oil spills. "Crude oil is less toxic on the face of it but
it lasts longer and it's sloppier, he says.
An example of the Coast Guard's involvement in a spill came
during May when a leak developed in an acid storage container
owned by GATX Terminals Corp. at the Port of Tampa. An estimated
32,000 gallons escaped from the tank and followed a drainage
ditch into Kreher Basin at Hillsborough Bay. Although there was
some initial confusion, the Coast Guard was called to the scene
and only needed to monitor the cleanup operation. "GATX
was following every (procedure) they could after the initial
mess-up," according to the USCG's MacDonald. GATX employed
tugboats to churn up the water near the spill, breaking up the
heavy phosphoric acid which sank to the bottom of the basin.
For added measure, a nearby sewage treatment plant diverted 25
million gallons of treated waste water to the basin to help dilute
the acid.
Although only a few catfish died as a direct result of the
GATX acid spill, that isn't a good sign at all. It reminded environmentalists
that upper Hillsborough Bay and the waters of Port of Tampa are
biologically dead. There were no fish there to be killed.
Despite this, charges were filed by the Coast Guard against
GATX that will bring a maximum penalty of $5,000. MacDonald notes
that the recreational boaters would face the same recriminations
for spilling fuel into the bay. (GATX could also be subject to
criminal penalties assessed by the Environmental Protection Agency
of up to a $50,000 fine and five years in prison. After its most
recent spill, Gardinier agreed to pay $2.1 million in penalties.)
The Coast Guard is stalking an elephant with a hot air gun;
the Tampa station has a staff of 12 that is responsible for waters
north from Appalachia Bay to Naples in the south.
"I'll be the first to admit we could do much better with
more people," says MacDonald.
Economic Impact
Dr. Joe DeSalvo, director of the Center for Economic and Management
Research at USF, authored a recent economic impact study of the
Port of Tampa. His primary conclusion was that the port has a
$6 billion impact on the five counties surrounding it. He, however,
was at a loss to estimate the cost of a million gallon oil spill
on Tampa Bay.
"I wouldn't know how to begin to quantify that,"
he says. "The negatives could be cutting the shrimp catch,
completely eliminating sport fishing. ... Tourists (might not)
want to come here because of an oil spill."
The only vaguely positive aspect for Tampa Bay would be the
money paid to clean up the spill.
"If the $12 million was paid in the Tampa Bay area, it
would have a positive economic impact," according to DeSalvo.
But "the real question is who would pay the $12 million?"
Ripple effects of a man-made disaster could come from unexpected
quarters in the event of a spill.
Even though the Exxon Valdez incident occurred thousands of
miles away in Alaska, Sen. Helen Gordon Davis (D-Tampa) was outraged
enough to propose a legislative amendment recommending the state
government of Florida boycott Exxon. The notion didn't succeed
as law, but did continue the bad publicity steamroller Exxon
has had to contend with since the oil spill.
"The $841,000 we spend a year with Exxon would not have
hurt them but it made a statement: the state of Florida does
not deal with polluters," says Davis. "I think all
governments should make a statement about all intentional polluters
and their arrogance. The callousness and insensitivity of that
company is unbelievable."
Davis' idea -- which may have influenced a one-day boycott
of Exxon in nine states including New York and Connecticut --
is just one more example of how an environmental accident can
negatively impact the bottom line. Publicity stunts are just
one aspect of economic impact caused by spills.
Tampa Bay is a substantial economic as well as recreational
asset to the entire region. It's a primary amenity for the local
quality of life. Ships could work through a spill here, but pleasure
boats couldn't. And no one would be interested in buying waterfront
property where the water was oil-soaked and inky.
"The bay has a substantial economic value," says
Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt. "The estuary
value makes it a prime nursery spot for commercial and sport
fish. It would be a substantial loss to have it damaged. I think
the public has awakened to the bay as a resource and it must
be protected at all costs."
Corporations are learning they must be protected as well and
stonewalling, hemming and hawing is no longer the way to do it.
One week after Gardinier spilled 40,000 gallons of phosphatic
fertilizer solution into the Alafia River in April 1988, the
company hired Benito Public Relations to produce brochures, newsletters
and offer public relations advice.
"Their spill -- as best as anyone can determine -- didn't
cause lasting damage," according to Rod Brooker, managing
director of Benito P.R. "It killed a lot of fish and crabs
on the spot -- but as soon as it was dispersed by ship propellers,
it was gone. It was like an electric shock -- it hits you and
it's gone."
Gardinier has been responsible for at least nine "incidents"
-- the company says only one was technically a spill -- ranging
from 1,500 gallons to 13.8 million gallons during the past decade.
"Due to this," concedes Gray Gordon, vice president
of industrial relations, "we have gotten our name in a bad
position. Some companies are beter at reporting (incidents) than
others. We report and it's hurt us from a public relations point
of view." Unlike Exxon, however, consumers cannot directly
take a pound of flesh from the phosphate company by returning
credit cards. "The negative publicity has not affected our
sales," says Gordon. "It has hurt us in that we have
to be better than industry standards (for safety)."
They can also -- and have -- made the political climate sticky
for the company by pressing local, state and federal officials
to keep up the heat on Gardinier. And even for a company that
doesn't deal directly with the public, bad publicity is an undesirable
by-product of sloppy business.
"The state is becoming more active," according to
the USCG's Lt. Paul MacDonald. "We expect to see the Department
of Natural Resources popping up. We've got popular opinion. It's
not in the (corporations') interests to lose their product."
GATX spokesman George Lowman agrees. "Our primary business
is to store and distribute product. If someone gives us a gallon,
they want a gallon back. We are fully prepared to contain and
clean up virtually any conceivable situation arising from the
products we handle," says Lowman. "We are prepared
to deal with spills that have nothing to do with our company.
We will lend our people, our equipment. Speed and immediate containment
is of the utmost importance and we are prepared to deal with
that."
Gray Gordon of Gardinier thinks GATX could be hurt far more
than would be proportionate to whatever damage it caused due
to negative publicity. "It cost (GATX) fines, rebuilding,
lost product, legal costs," says Gordon. "You may have
people question if they want to store their product there. ...
I don't think the average person conceives the power of the press.
We've seen that ourselves. You can have anything happen around
the bay that's worse than anything we've done. But if it says
'Gardinier,' you're fighting an uphill battle. I'm not saying
we've always done everything right. But you're not going to find
anyone trying harder."
Should there ever be a major oil spill in Tampa Bay of Valdez
proportions, Rod Brooker says the offending company should be
mindful of crossing every "t", dotting every "i"
and be willing to wash its laundry in public if that's what it
takes to be on the side of righteousness.
"Obviously," he says, "the effects (of a spill)
would come in terms of their image, their legal standing and
their finances. All would be damaged. Exxon is a company that
did it all wrong. They could've handled this situation differently."
Handling the press in a disaster setting is every flack's
dream and nightmare combined. They don't want it to happen, but
if it does, they want the opportunity to put it in the best light.
There's no higher challenge. It's like being a soldier. They
don't want a war, but that's why he's there.
Notes from the Rod Brooker Book of Disaster Management (or,
Lessons Learned at Exxon's Expense):
* "When you're in the middle of a disaster, everyone
will listen to you. The problem is, it's under the least favorable
conditions. It's highly negative.
* "Most companies do not understand the intensity of
forces the company has to put on the situation. Exxon didn't.
You have to immediately, intensely, focus. And timeliness. People
don't understand how quickly you have to respond. The United
States Coast Guard, the EPA, etc. are all saying things about
you. You're trying to get steps ahead but you're already 10 steps
behind.
* "You can't make a mistake. You have to do it right
the first time.
* "What the smart company does is talk about what they've
done to prevent it. It involves direct mailings, buying ads.
In a major disaster, you have to do all those things. You have
to let the public know you did the best you could to avoid a
disaster, but now that it has happened, you're doing everything
you can to fix it.
* "The problems would be mind-boggling. Regardless of
how organized you are, you still get to the bottom line: 'What
are you going to do to fix this? When will it be done? Who's
going to pay for it?'
* "Sometimes you just have to say, 'I don't know.' That
takes guts.
* "The best you can hope for is for the public to say,
'It was terrible but it was a freakish set of circumstances.'
Get them to say, 'Well, they're good people, at least they responded
well.'"
GATX spokesman George Lowman can't imagine why Exxon's public
relations machinery and image went so far awry after the Valdez
incident. "Exxon has a history of being very good at that
-- except for Valdez. It's difficult to know what went on,"
he says. "Exxon is known in the business as an excellent
and quality-oriented company. It is difficult to know exactly
what happened in Alaska. It's a disaster of major proportions
that is difficult to clean up. There will be a lot of litigation."
Lowman says GATX is always prepared for the worst to happen.
But he insists the negative air around Exxon wouldn't happen
to his publicly traded, New York Stock Exchange company.
"We are open, we are forthright," he says. "We
will say everything we know as fact. That is company policy."
Gardinier's Gordon says he thinks every business handling
toxic waste on Tampa Bay can learn from the Exxon disaster. "The
amount of harm on the bay wouldn't be relative to the affect
on the business," he says. "It goes a lot beyond, 'Is
the customer going to buy or not buy?' It would have a terrific
economic impact on the company. Hopefully, companies are looking
at their tanks and facilities."
Even the best laid plans of tanker captains and oil executives
will occasionally go awry. Rich Paul, manager of the National
Audobon Society's Tampa Bay sanctuaries, says there's no way
he can ever be confident the environment could dodge a major
toxic bullet in the bay.
"This is like nuclear war, isn't it?" he asks. "It
could happen. You hope it won't, but crossing your fingers doesn't
help. We saw that in Alaska. The staff and the methods for containing
a spill were watered down. I hope the oil spill plans for Port
of Tampa and Port Manatee are being thoroughly reviewed. These
things don't clean themselves up overnight."
SIDEBAR
Pipelines
You'd think somebody would know where all the oil pipelines
are buried in the communities of Tampa Bay, but thinking and
knowing are two different animals.
Take the 14-mile fuel link between Port Manatee and the FPL
power plant in Parrish. It is 16 inches wide and carries a thick,
heated oil described as residual oil. FPL has two 500,000 barrel
storage tanks at both ends of the pipeline to supply the plant,
which burns 40,000 barrels a day. The pipeline has a computer
which controls pressure in the system and can shut off valves
at the beginning, middle and end of the line in case of trouble.
There has never been a spill or failure of the line.
That's a good thing because nobody in authority seems to know
where the pipeline is or can produce a map of it. Not an FPL
spokesman in Miami, not Manatee civil defense, pollution control,
the fire district or sheriff's department. Each agency -- few
people even knew there was a pipeline -- referred inquiries to
someone else.
The same drill didn't work much better at Port Tampa, where
three pipelines originate.
A subsidiary of GATX Corp., the Central Florida Pipeline Co.,
operates the Central Florida Pipeline from Port of Tampa to storage
tanks in Taft, near Orlando International Airport. It supplies
mostly gasoline and jet fuel via an eight-inch and a six-inch
line buried along CSX Railroad right-of-way. There was an accident
on the Central Florida Pipeline in December 1985 in the town
of Lake Alfred when it was struck by construction equipment and
40,000 gallons of leaded gasoline spilled out.
Within Hillsborough County are two shorter jet fuel pipelines,
both originating at the port. The Tampa Pipeline Corp. delivers
jet fuel to Tampa International Airport via a 1969 underground
pipeline that follows Commerce Street into Westshore Blvd. right-of-way.
It is a low-pressure line, buried an average of three feet underground,
sending petrol to the airport under 400 pounds pressure instead
of 700-1,000 pounds. There has never been an accident on the
6-inch wide, quarter-inch thick line, which is supplied by a
consortium of Shell, Chevron and Gulf BP.
A second, shorter government-owned line transports jet fuel
from Port of Tampa to MacDill Air Force Base. The line is also
used to supply fuel to other government agencies.
Residual oil -- a thick, gunky substances not unlike bunker
oil -- is carried by pipelines in Pinellas and Manatee counties.
These pipelines must be kept heated to 130 degrees to keep the
oil fluid enough to move through the lines.
The Pinellas line is 14 inches wide and buried six feet below
ground. It starts at the Bartow power plant and follows Florida
Power right-of-way for 31 miles to its Anclote Key station, just
north of Tarpon Springs. For the most part, the pipeline weaves
along east and west of U.S. 19; at Pasco County it threads the
Pinellas/Pasco line west to Anclote. Florida Power has only experienced
one break in the line, caused by a construction mishap.
People's Gas in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties receives
natural gas from its Texas suppliers entirely by pipeline. That
line, owned by Florida Gas Transmission Co., enters Florida at
the panhandle, comes down the center of the state then has a
western spur called the "St. Petersburg Lateral" that
flows from Orlando across Lakeland to Hillsborough County. In
Hillsborough, the main line is buried approximately three feet
underground and follows the interstate highways, goes to Pinellas
through Oldsmar at the top of Tampa Bay, then closely follows
U.S. 19 into St. Petersburg. The line then goes back to Hillsborough
by following Gandy Blvd., crossing along the bottom of the bay.
Natural gas pipelines are much safer than oil pipelines, according
to People's Gas Director of Public Affairs Scott Wilson.
"If one of those lines ruptures you don't have the chance
of pollution," he says. Even with a lit match, accidents
are unlikely at ground level because the mixture is too rich,
according to Wilson. "You just have a gas that's lighter
than air, that goes up into the atmosphere and dissipates."
end
©2000,
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express written permission of the author.
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