If you’re planning on travelling to the southeastern states within the next two months, not only will you not indulge in the moment of economic hallelujah from the gasoline promise land of the east coast, Virginia; you might want to pack your own fuel. Have you ever wondered why Virginians were paying $1.16/gallon, while you were paying $2.30/gallon of gas? One of those reasons is the Colonial Pipeline, an underground gas channel, that stretches from Texas to New York. Being one of the greatest suppliers of gasoline in the southern states, as of Monday, a 250,000-gallon leak in the pipeline has a number of states in a gas shortage emergency (Cusick, 2016). While waiting in line for 45 minutes at my Fayetteville, NC gas station, as the pumps drained empty, I became curious of how this underground disaster was effecting the environment, resource supply, and economics.
In 2010, we all witnessed the devastation that was caused by the infamous BP oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico—in fact, Deepwater Horizon, a film depicting the oil spill, has just been released to theaters. Coined as one of the worst environmental disasters of US history, the Deepwater Horizon spill was a mass extermination of marine species along the Gulf Coast. As the most recent worldwide precedent of petroleum-linked disaster, it was highly doubtful that the Colonial Pipeline Leak of 2016 would yield a comparable amount of damage to Deepwater Horizon. Nonetheless, many residents of the Colonial spill site in Alabama, were apprehensive over how the leak would impact the ecosystem of the Cahaba river, which is home to freshwater marine species and various forms of wildlife. Member of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kevin Eichlinger, claims that the detrimental effects of the spill are minimal, and bearing in mind the size of the spill (the Colonial Pipeline’s largest in 20 years), stakeholders of the pipeline should consider themselves lucky (Philips, 2016). The gas, which escaped from the pipe, flowed over 500 feet of land, before being absorbed by two emergency containments ponds, leaving behind only a small amount of plant and animal damage before EPA cleanup crews were on the scene (Philips, 2016).
Although lucky, at best, the Colonial Pipeline leak could have created a much greater environmental impact and should draw attention to the dangers of underground storage tanks (UST’s). There are a number of reasons why UST’s begin to leak, such as poor installation or future corrosion of the pipeline. Of the 1.4 million UST’s filled with gasoline nationwide, it is estimated that 10-35% of them are currently leaking and would fail environmental safety tests (Page, 1988). Composed of dangerous aromatic chemicals and metallic substances, seepage of gasoline into the soil contaminates ground water, a source 50% of Americans, including 100% of rural areas, rely upon for drinking (Sierra, n.d.). In fact, a 1998 survey revealed that leaking pipelines have contaminated over 800 personal groundwater wells with gasoline additives (Schneiderman, 2016). 1 gallon of gasoline has the potential to contaminate 1 million gallons of water. This suggests that the 250,000-gallon Colonial Pipeline leak could have contaminated 250 trillion gallons of water (Sierra, n.d.). When it comes to wasted gasoline or water, we wish we could say, “There’s more where that came from,” but, that would be untrue. Gasoline and fresh water are nonrenewable resources; an endangered species. Humans, and the choices they make, are dangerous predators.
Figure 1. A chart provided by (Sierra, n.d.), listing potential gasoline composed toxins and their impacts on health, permitted composition of drinking water, origins and mobility in soil.
When forced to make a choice between self-interest and the welfare of the environment, a resource dilemma, humans are much more likely to drive their cars or run their air conditioners, among other resource depleting decisions. Though individual consumption of resources feels too small to make a difference, all of the energy consumption, by individuals with similar mindsets, adds up to world-population sized environmental footprint (Schneider, 2012). While consumption and spilled gasoline exhaust one nonrenewable resource, gasoline-linked contamination of fresh water destroys another—both of which drain our wallets.
With respect to the Colonial Pipeline leak, the financial backlash has already been huge. The notoriously inexpensive gas prices of Virginia and North Carolina are no more. Since Monday, the day which states of emergency were declared, gas prices have increased over $0.50 in most southeastern states. Receiving their inventory from trucks, gas stations have a limited supply of gasoline to offer customers, and are running out daily. Higher gas prices equate to higher expenses needed for delivery trucks to make their way to grocery stores, yielding an inflation of food prices. Gas analyst, Patrick DeHaan, says to expect this financial impact to expand throughout most of the nation for at least two weeks, and potentially up to two months (Philips, 2016). Meanwhile, the obvious question is: how to we protect our environment and our pocketbooks in the future?
One solution is to stop the leakage of UST’s. This could include: educating the public on the commonality of groundwater contamination; development of equipment that monitors for gasoline spills or more inspections of UST and pipeline structures. Revisiting resource dilemmas, we can make a conscious effort to choose the environment over personal desires. Travelling a short distance? Take your bike. Limit your showers to 5 minutes. Just like individual consumption of resources adds up to environmental devastation, why not use the same principle for environmental protection (Schneider, 2012).
References:
Cusick, D. (2016 September 20). What you need to know about the North Carolina gas shortage. ABC: Eyewitness News. Retrieved from URL: http://abc11.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-nc-gas-shortage/1518000/
Page, N. P. (1998). Gasoline leaking from underground storage tanks: Impact on drinking water quality. U.S. Department of Energy: Office of Science and Technological Information. Retrieved from URL: http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/5966974
Philips, R. (2016 September 19). 5 things to know about the colonial pipeline leak impacting the southeast. The Weather Channel. Retrieved from URL: https://weather.com/news/news/colonial-pipeline-spill-impacts-alabama-gas-shortage
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A. & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical projects. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. (pp. 298, 299)
Schneiderman, E T., Attorney General. (2016). The dangers of leaking underground storage tanks. New York State Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved from URL: http://www.ag.ny.gov/environmental/oil-spill/dangers-leaking-underground-storage-tanks
Sierra Club. Leaking underground storage tanks: A threat to public health and environment. Retrieved from URL:http://www.csu.edu/cerc/documents/LUSTThreattoPublicHealth.pdf
U.S. Energy Information. (2016). Gasoline explained: gasoline and the environment. Retrieved from URL: http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=gasoline_environment