2005 Abstract for a paper presented at OMRN by Gail Fraser

Ocean Management Research Network (OMRN) National Conference 2005

Canada’s Oceans:
Research, Management & the Human Dimension

September 29 to October 1, 2005

Ottawa, Ontario

OFFSHORE OIL SPILLS: PROBLEMS COMPARING THE PREDICTED TO THE OBSERVED IN EASTERN CANADA

G. S. Fraser, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto gsfraser@yorku.ca, 416.736.2100; J. Ellis, Alder Institute, NL; and J. Russell, Alder Institute, NL.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) encourages public participation in the assessment process. CEAA includes follow-up programs as environmental assessment predictions are inherently uncertain. While the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency administers the follow-up process, the public should be permitted to conduct independent follow-up queries, particularly in large projects that are deemed to have potentially significant environmental impacts. We evaluated the accessibility of follow-up data in the case of offshore oil spills from oil and gas platforms, in two different legislative regions of eastern Canada: Nova Scotia (NS) and Newfoundland & Labrador (NL). We examined the predictions provided in the environmental impact statements (EIS) pertaining to oil spill size and frequency and evaluate the accessibility of these data for three projects. The regulatory agencies, Canada-NS Offshore Petroleum Board and Canada-NL Offshore Petroleum Board only report summary spill statistics. All three of these projects had significant public involvement in the EIS process, yet current forms of reporting prevent a comparison of the predicted to the observed spill size and frequency. The primary obstacle in publicly reporting these data is the legislation regulating offshore oil activities, the Canada-NL Atlantic Accord Implementation Act and Canada-NS Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act. These acts only permit the regulatory agencies to publish information on a spill that involves a legal investigation. Otherwise, public access to these data requires the written permission of the offshore operators. Oil spills should not be considered proprietary data and should be released annually on a per-platform basis.