DANS
SHEET – PAGE ONE
Refugio
Spill – Day One
Turn
back the clock slightly more than one month -
May
19, 2015
There
is a break in a pipe belonging to Plains All American Pipeline,
headquartered in Houston Texas. Plains owns ten miles of pipeline in
the Refugio area, the rest of which is owned by Exxon Mobil.
Plains
employees are parked in the Refugio Camp Ground about to begin a
drill with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department at 11:42am when a
camper calls attention to the terrible smell coming from a broken
pipe spewing crude oil into a culvert leading to the beach.
County
Fire Fighters proceed to the location, attempting to keep the oil
from entering the culvert but most of it, up to 100,000 gallons,
escapes into the Pacific across the beach. DC, beginning at 17:56,
ending at 18:03 Eastern Standard Time. California this was 2:56 in
the afternoon Pacific Standard Time. (See attachment - USCG
REFUGIO SPILL INITIAL INCIDENT REPORT, NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER.)
Below
are Models and graphs showing the areas which were hit by the gaseous
content from the spill, all of which was emitted within the first
hour and before any monitoring took place.
DANS
SHEET – PAGE TWO
Modeling
– Hydrogen Sulfide
Within
that hour the crude oil in the pipe is no longer flowing. The
gaseous contents, including high concentrations of Benzene, a
carcinogen, and Hydrogen Sulfide, a poison, have dispersed over the
area below.
Marplot
map of Hydrogen Sulfide from the spill point appears in purple,
extending to the Threat Point 2 miles downwind (blue cross) and
beyond, as indicated.
Modeling
using chemical content, wind velocity and direction, show the
concentration of Hydrogen Sulfide was probably above the level where
most people could begin to suffer life threatening effects for about
10 minutes more than a mile downwind (northeast).
DANS
SHEET – PAGE THREE
Graph
One – Hydrogen Sulfide
Modeling
using chemical content, wind velocity and direction, show the
concentration of Hydrogen Sulfide was probably above the level where
most people could begin to suffer life threatening effects. This
threat lasted for about 10 minutes and extended more than a
mile downwind (northeast). If this pipeline had burst nearer to a
larger population or if the wind direction had shifted the effects
could have been remembered as a disaster which killed hundreds or
thousands of people.
The
impact on people and animals decreased as the gas grew less
concentrated. But, as shown in the graph, was still concentrated
enough to be life threatening.
Closer
to the spill point the likelihood of death or life-threatening
conditions increased during the period immediately after the spill
occurred.
Source
of Information on Health Impact: Venoco Material Safety Data Sheet
(MSDS)
The
health impact on life used for reference is from the MSDS prepared by
Venoco, one of the three petroleum companies operating in the coastal
area near Santa Barbara. Venoco runs fracking operations in the
Central Valley, which are selling produced water (water containing
toxic materials from the fracking process) to farmers in the Central
Valley. Venoco Inc., operating as Venoco Oil, is presently seeking
to extend their Monterey Shale operations off the Central Coast.
DANS
SHEET – PAGE FOUR
Graph
Two – Hydrogen Sulfide
The
concentration of Hydrogen Sulfide was probably above the level where
most people could begin to suffer life threatening effects for about
10 minutes more than a mile downwind (northeast).
The contents of the crude oil released, though not released by
Plains, was available through DANS sources.
The
concentration of Hydrogen Sulfide and its dispersal in the gaseous
material released provides the locations where people and animals
were impacted. This information is essential for treatment and to
provide links to the party responsible for creating the conditions
which impact the health of individuals.
The
MSDS provided by Venoco includes the potential impact of Hydrogen
Sulfide under Other Comments, cited below. Source, Venoco MSDS,
Extract - Health
Other
Comments:
This material may contain or liberate hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous
gas with the smell of rotten eggs. The smell disappears rapidly
because of olfactory fatigue so odor may not be a reliable indicator
of exposure. Effects of overexposure include irritation of the eyes
nose, throat and respiratory tract, blurred vision, photophobia
(sensitivity to light) and pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the
lungs) . Severe exposures can result in nausea, vomiting, muscle
weakness, or cramps, headache, disorientation and other signs of
nervous system depression, irregular heartbeats convulsions,
respiratory failure, and death.
DANS
SHEET – PAGE FIVE
Map
Two - Benzene
Creating
models for the dispersal of gaseous materials requires the use of
software designed for the purpose by the United States government
through the Department of Commerce. This is in the public domain and
is readily available to oil companies and to the public. The maps
and graphs used by DANS were created using the same software which
companies such as Plains All American Pipeline or ExxonMobil would
use. The specific information on the chemical profile of the crude
oil in the line at the time the spill took place was found in Canada.
These
models, showing areas threatened by potentially fatal levels of
Benzene and Hydrogen Sulfide were not made public by Plains, but they
had in their possession the means of doing so. Such information
provides to individuals who were in the impacted area a link between
any resulting health problems experienced as a result of exposure
caused by the spill.
DANS
SHEET – PAGE SIX
Graph
One – Benzene
The
relationship between exposure to Benzene and cancer is acknowledged
in the MSDS produced by Venoco. The section below is copied from the
Venoco MSDS Extract, already cited.
Benzene
Carcinogenicity:
Benzene is an animal carcinogen and is known to produce leukemia in
humans Benzene has been identified as a human carcinogen by NTP,
IARC, and O.S.H.A.
Target
Organs: Prolonged or
repeated exposures to benzene vapors has been linked to bone marrow
toxicity which can result in blood disorders such as leukopenia,
thrombocytopenia and aplastic anemia. All of these diseases can be
fatal.
Developmental:
Exposure to benzene
during pregnancy demonstrated limited evidence of developmental
toxicity in laboratory animals. The effects seen include decreased
body weight and increase skeletal variations in rodents. Alterations
in hematopoiesis is have been observed in the fetuses and offspring
of pregnant mice.
Warning:
This material contains the following chemicals which are known to the
State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other
reproductive harm and are subject to the requirements of California
Proposition 65 (California Health and Safety Code section 25249.51.
SOURCES
SB
air dispersion models
SB oil
trajectory simulation model
SB oil
composition - Env Canada, MSDS (Plains, Exxon, Venoco)
SB oil
degradation and evaporation
Plains
Core Oil Spill Response Plan
EXXON
Pacific Region Oil Spill Response Plan
Venoco
Oil Spill Contingency Plan South Elwood Field
Tides
and winds for the week of May 19
Attachments
USCG
REFUGIO SPILL INITIAL INCIDENT REPORT, NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER
Software
Suites Used
CAMEO
CHEMICALS
ALOHA
MARPLOT
GNOME
ADIOS
END
DANS SHEETS - 6.28.2015
In
the largest leak probe in journalism history, some 376 investigative
journalists from 80 countries worked collaboratively to report stories
beginning April 3 on 11.5 million financial records from the
Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The firm is one of the world's
top creators of shell companies that hide the assets of the wealthy. The
probe has prompted official resignations and ongoing investigations in
several nations.
ICIJ, 
"Pay
attention to whistleblowers," said the ICIJ's Walker Guevara in
describing lessons learned from the project. She praised the newspaper
SZ for following that procedure even though newsrooms are increasingly
busy during an era of decreased income. She praised the organization
also for realizing that the data and story possibilities were too
massive for one news organization.