This Week's Headlines
Valdez Oil Spill Case Appealed
Register Today for "The Habit of SellingTM"
SCAA, AEA Offer Webinar on Distributor/Manufacturer Relations
Officials Blame Oil Spill on Open Valve
Seven Holes Found in Oil Tank after 9,000 Gallon Leak
Limestone Spill Lawsuit Granted Class Action Status
U.S. Reviews Ohio Toxic Waste Cleanup
Alaska Environment Regulator Issues New Pipeline Rules
Who Else Should Receive Spill Briefs?
Valdez Oil Spill Case Appealed
Exxon Mobil Corp. is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its
December decision demanding it pay $2.5 billion to compensate thousands
of fishermen and other Alaskans for the 1989 Valdez tanker oil spill.
The disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, soiled 1,500 miles of
Alaskan coastline.
An Anchorage jury had ordered the company to pay $5 billion in punitive
damages, which are meant to punish a company for misconduct. The 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in the third time it heard one of the
nation's longest running cases, cut the award in half, saying $2.5
billion was enough punishment. Exxon then asked the San Francisco-based
appeals court to rehear the case with the same three judges or to
empanel a 15-judge panel to hear it.
Exxon maintains it should have to pay no more than $25 million because,
among other things, it has spent more than $3 billion to settle federal
and state lawsuits and to clean the Prince William Sound area.
Register Today for "The Habit of SellingTM"
SCAA invites you to register for “The
Habit of Selling,” an interactive sales training seminar for all sales
professionals and managers set for March 20 – 22 in Dayton, Ohio. Like
professional athletes, sales professionals require ongoing practice and
training to succeed. Sales managers who understand this provide their
salespeople with opportunities to acquire new skills, increase
productivity and reach their goals.
Sales professionals will learn how to document their organization’s
value-added services and sell them to their customers. With the help of
the logical and systematic “5 A’s Selling Process,” attendees will work
on a target account of their choice to gain practical, hands-on tools
for better face-to face selling.
SCAA is co-sponsoring this sales training event with the Association
Education Alliance (AEA); which is a collaboration of associations that
work together to provide training and networking opportunities for its
members. This is your opportunity to meet and network with sales
professionals from a variety of different industries. Registration for
the course is $895 per person.
DETAILS
SCAA, AEA Offer Webinar on Distributor/Manufacturer Relations
SCAA and the Association Education Alliance are offering a webinar titled Distributor/Manufacturer Relations: Demonstrating Total Cost Savings. Tim Underhill will make the presentation March 28, 2007 from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. EST.
Manufacturers and distributors add value
with the products and services they provide their customers. The ability
to communicate that value, beyond price, is difficult for many
companies. As the prices of steel, energy, plastics and other
costs rise, the need to demonstrate your value is also rising.
This presentation will focus on why customers need suppliers that can
reduce their total operating costs and why you need to show your value.
It will show you how to document your value quickly and easily. More
details are coming soon.
Officials Blame Oil Spill on Open Valve
Authorities are blaming a January 6 oil spill of up to 12,000 gallons on a valve left open by workers at the Hunt Crude Oil Supply Co. The storage tank was still leaking three days later, though everything that flowed out of it was being captured by a vacuum truck.
Fortunately, no oil made it to Mobile Bay or the Mobile River, according to federal officials, who said the spill was confined to ditches alongside Alternate U.S. 90/98. Spill specialists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service responded to the accident and are supervising the cleanup.
Officials said the 10-million-gallon tank that ruptured was due for an inspection in 2007, adding that the Alabama Bulk Terminal Co. facility is inspected regularly and is not known for violations. DETAILS
Seven Holes Found in Oil Tank After 9,000 Gallon Leak
A 46-year-old underground oil tank that leaked about 9,000 gallons of oil into the soil near a Massachusetts high school has been removed from the ground, revealing seven holes. The leaks followed an oil delivery January 5 in which the tank was overfilled. The tank, which had about 4,000 gallons in it when another 5,860 gallons were delivered January 5, was empty when school staff arrived at the building January 8.
Although it is a 10,200-gallon tank, its capacity is less because tanks are not built to be filled to the top. The tank had been inspected in June 2005 and was found to be sound. Inspections are required every five years. What caused the breach and whether it had anything to do with the force of filling the tank has yet to be determined. DETAILS
Limestone Spill Lawsuit Granted Class Action Status
A lawsuit brought by some Limestone Township residents stemming from the 1988 Shell gasoline spill has been granted class action status. A United States district court in New York agreed Wednesday to certify as a class action the property and nuisance claims of Limestone property owners affected by the gasoline spill.
The lawsuit stems from a 1988 gasoline pipeline spill in Limestone Township. It is generally accepted that 100,000 gallons of gas contaminated with MTBE were spilled, but lawyers say the number could be as high as a million gallons. The suit pushes for more extensive public water main extensions, recovery of property value loss, and remediation for health problems stemming from ingesting or bathing in water contaminated with MTBE.
U.S. Reviews Ohio Toxic Waste Cleanup
A bird's nest nestled in
the tall grasses of a wetland symbolizes the end of a 20-year struggle
to clean up a site contaminated by radioactive material from a former
Cold War-era uranium processing plant. After years of often-contentious
public meetings, lawsuits and relentless lobbying, the land is now
devoid of 1.5 million tons of its most dangerous waste and has begun its
transformation into an undeveloped park and wildlife haven covered with
woods, prairie and wetlands.
Fluor Fernald, the company in charge of the cleanup that cost federal
taxpayers $4.4 billion, announced its work was completed. The Energy
Department, which owns the site, is conducting a final review to ensure
the cleanup meets its standards.
DETAILS
Alaska Environment Regulator Issues New Pipeline Rules
The Department of Environmental Conservation or DEC, Alaska's
environmental regulator, has quietly issued a new set of regulations
designed to improve the monitoring of its oil pipelines. The
regulations, which came into effect at the end of December 2006,
comprehensively revise Alaska's standards for preventing oil pollution.
Previously, Alaska had
been operating under crude pollution regulations that were drawn up in
1992, standards that have come in for heavy criticism in the wake of the
serious oil spills seen in 2006. Not only did BP PLC (BP) suffer an oil
spill at a transit line on the North Slope in March, but the firm was
forced to partially shut its giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in August after
finding severely corroded pipelines, with a lack of adequate corrosion
monitoring programs seen as a possible cause of the problems.
The DEC began developing
its new regulations two and a half years ago. The new rules cover a wide
gamut of issues, including design and construction standards for crude
storage tanks, pipeline inspection standards, and personnel training. A
particular area of improvement is that Alaska is now regulating flow
pipelines, which weren't previously regulated. Flow lines carry a
mixture of oil and water from the wellhead to processing centers, where
the water is stripped out of the mixture. Corrosion from water
contamination,
which is more likely to occur in maturing wells, is seen as a key cause
of many pipeline leaks and problems.
''Life is not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and still keep going.'' -- Rocky Balboa
Who Else Should Receive Spill Briefs?
SCAA's Spill Briefs is distributed free of charge to representatives of member companies. If there's someone else in your organization who might benefit from this newsletter, send their name and e-mail address to info@scaa-spill.org.
The Latest News from SCAA
Here's the latest news from the Spill Control Association of America.
You can find an archive of SCAA's newsletters on SCAA's web site.
Let us know what you think of the online newsletter. Send your comments or article ideas to Jackie King.
Coming Events
May 15-17, 2007
SCAA 2007 Annual Meeting
Sheraton National Hotel
Arlington, Virginia
SCAA Staff
Executive
Director
443-640-1085
ext. 105
Director of Meetings & Member Services
443-640-1085
ext. 112
Financial Manager
443-640-1085
ext. 103
SCAA Headquarters
2105 Laurel Bush Rd.
Suite 200
Bel Air, MD 21015
443-640-1085
fax: 443-640-1086
Disclaimer:
Although the Spill Control Association of America has made every effort
to be accurate, unintentional errors may appear.
© 2007 Spill Control Association of America. Unauthorized
re-distribution of this newsletter (including posting of links to this
newsletter on the Internet) is strictly prohibited. Please contact
info@scaa-spill.org for
re-distribution authorization.