Dear John,

It's time we put an end to oil spill disasters that leave our natural ecosystems, communities, and economy in permanent, irreversible harm. The recent oil spill by the San Juan Islands signals a critical need for stronger safety regulations.

Right now, the Washington Department of Ecology is amending regulations that could improve oil transportation safety with facility oil handling standards, vessel oil transfer advance notice and containment requirements. These safety measures are critical to protect our water quality, the health of Puget Sound, and to reduce threats to Southern Resident killer whales. 

Please take a moment to urge Ecology to reduce threats to our marine ecosystem from oil transportation, send an email to Ecology now!

In 2003, an over-the-water oil transfer operation taking place at night in Edmonds went awry, spilling 5,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Puget Sound. This single spill damaged 400 acres of the Suquamish Indian Reservation’s prime cultural and environmental lands, including salt-water marsh, old growth timber, beaches, and clam beds.

As a result of this incident, Washington State enacted requirements for advance notice of transfer operations and pre-booming oil transfer operations regulations. 

Now, Ecology is updating these requirements along with new decommissioning requirements. But, the draft rules have a key loophole, letting the oil industry off the hook for secondary containment earthquake retrofit measures.

Email today and urge Ecology to make sure this rule is as strong as possible, holding the oil industry accountable for the risks they pose to all of us.  

You only have until August 31st to tell Ecology that this rulemaking should:

• Require all secondary containment structures (that prevent spilled oil from reaching the waters of the state) to withstand seismic forces.

• Require all oil transfer operations to be pre-boomed (when safe and effective to do so) and eliminate the Rate B loophole that allows oil transfers at 500 gallons per minute or less to occur without pre-booming. 

• Restrict all oil transfer operations to daylight hours, and at the very least, restrict all oil transfer operations to daylight hours when it’s not safe and effective to pre-boom.

You can learn more about this rulemaking here.

Thank you for taking action to improve the safety of oil transportation in Washington State,

Rein Attemann (he/him)
Puget Sound Advocacy Manager