Oil shippers and enforcement agencies are encouraged by the reduction in the volume of spilled oil in recent years, but they are not letting up in their efforts to prevent accidents.

While statistics show that the volume of oil spilled in U.S. waterways has fallen significantly over the last 10 years, industry observers agree that still more can be done to stop spills from occurring. In Europe, the recent spill from the oil tanker Erika has prompted calls for tighter standards that could prevent such incidents.

"There have been great improvements, but there is a need for more," said Richard T. du Moulin, chairman and chief executive officer of Marine Transport Corp., a Weehawken, N.J.-based owner and operator of oil-carrying vessels.

He pointed out that "the ability to clean up and respond to spills has dramatically improved after the Exxon Valdez," the tanker that leaked 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989. "The response capability in this country is probably the best in the world, and it is improving elsewhere."

Unfortunately, Mr. du Moulin said, "the emphasis is on cleanup and punishment. There has not been enough emphasis on prevention."

Even so, great strides have been made in preventing spills into U.S. waterways, Mr. du Moulin and others agree.

The tanker industry, which began making progress as long as 25 years before the Exxon Valdez spilled its cargo, has shown dramatic improvement over the years since that accident, Mr. du Moulin said.

Industry observers point to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, passed by Congress as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster, as a major factor behind the reduction in spills over the last decade. The act created dozens of rules related to tanker safety, established stiffer criminal penalties for polluters, and required tanker owners to develop response plans for spills.

In addition, the act required that any tanker built after the law's enactment be constructed with a double hull. It further mandated that the single hulls of older vessels be reinforced, and all single-hull ships must be retired by 2015. Double-hulled ships must be retired upon reaching 41 years of age.

The American Petroleum Institute cites Coast Guard statistics to show that OPA '90 apparently has had an effect. In 1991, the year after the act was passed, 366,995 gallons of oil were spilled by tankers and barges in U.S. waterways. That compares with 6.9 million gallons the year before.

The volume of oil spilled reached 1.5 million gallons in 1996, the most for one year since OPA '90 was passed. In 1998, the last year for which statistics are available, 212,691 gallons were spilled.

The 1998 figure is "the lowest in the last 20 years," according to Robert Greco, general manager of marine transportation at the Washington-based API.

"Many of the spills that we're hearing about are not in the U.S.," Mr. Greco pointed out. "That's a positive statement about what U.S. industry, the Coast Guard and Congress are doing with OPA

'90. . . .We feel OPA '90 is working, and the proof is in the pudding."

And the U.S. Coast Guard is looking beyond the tankers themselves, stepping up its efforts to reduce spills by performing risk assessments at river and sea ports.

"What's really up and coming for us in the Coast Guard is using risk as a basis for trying to prevent accidents," said Commander Timothy Close, chief of the human element and ship design division at the Coast Guard's Washington headquarters.

To lessen the chances of spills, the Coast Guard is focusing on facilities where petroleum products are transferred to and from vessels. By reviewing several years worth of data, the Coast Guard can identify which facilities are at a higher risk for spills, based on several factors, including the volume of oil that is handled, the number of spills that have occurred, and the facility's history of compliance with federal regulations.

"We don't necessarily target (only) the bad players," Commander Close explained. Instead, efforts might focus, for example, on a facility where a large volume of oil moves through a heavily trafficked channel, he said.

Once a facility has been targeted, the Coast Guard helps it to identify hazards that could lead to spills and to develop procedures that could reduce the chances of an accident.

The Coast Guard has gradually "come to the realization that (assessing) risk is a smarter way to do business," Mr. Close remarked. "There was no Exxon Valdez-kind of turning point that changed things."

Outside the United States, there is growing concern about spills such as the one that fouled the coast of northwestern France on Dec. 12, when the Erika broke apart and released about 10,000 metric tons of oil (BI, Jan. 24; Dec. 20, 1999). The 24-year-old Erika had been chartered by the French oil company Totalfina.

The outcry following that accident included a call by French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet for tighter international shipping controls.

In addition, the European Commission said it may introduce tougher maritime regulations, including greater scrutiny of vessels' seaworthiness. And the International Assn. of Classification Societies, whose members are responsible for assessing the seaworthiness of ships, has said that member societies will be expelled if they fail to make proper assessments of vessels.

But Mr. du Moulin emphasized that there are other weaknesses in the "chain of responsibility" that allow incidents such as the Erika spill to occur.

"The single biggest weakness is the flag states," he said. A ship's "flag state" is the nation in which it is registered.

"It's their responsibility to enforce the international regulations on the ships that fly their flags," and some aren't doing the job, Mr. du Moulin charged.

The flag states' officials are responsible for making sure their nations' vessels meet the standards of the International Safety Management Code, Mr. du Moulin noted. Under the ISM Code, which took effect in July 1998 for passenger and merchant vessels of 500 gross tons or more, shipowners must adhere to standards of safe ship management and have in place systems to prevent accidents and pollution. Beginning in July 2002, the standards will apply to smaller vessels as well.

And when an accident occurs, "it's up to the flag state to investigate," Mr. du Moulin pointed out.

Many charter companies don't do their part to assess the seaworthiness of the vessels they hire to transport oil, he noted. "And there are owners who don't face their responsibilities and try to hide" when a spill occurs, he said.

Some of the problems can be laid at the feet of classification societies, he said. Too often, tanker owners shift their membership to "some of the weaker societies"- where scrutiny is not as intense-"when the stronger ones give them a hard time," Mr. du Moulin said.

When spills do occur, the companies that clean them up must rely largely on traditional methods.

"There really haven't been any dramatic improvements in technology in the recent past," said Steven Candito, president of National Response Corp. in Calverton, N.Y.

Some small improvements have been made, he noted. "We have seen, on the chemical dispersant side, agents that are a little less toxic than they used to be and that disperse the oil more effectively."

In-situ burning, in which oil is burned at the site of the spill, is an approach that is drawing a lot of interest but is hampered by some difficulties, Mr. Candito noted. The boom used to corral the oil during a burning sometimes can't withstand the heat created by the process, he explained, and although there are materials that would make the boom completely fireproof, those materials are very expensive.

"There also have been difficulties igniting the oil," Mr. Candito said.

The traditional method of mechanical recovery, using skimmers, hasn't changed much in recent years, he noted. But such time-tested technology, along with other cleanup methods such as dispersants, can do the job, he said.

"I think the resources we have now are effective, if utilized properly," Mr. Candito said.

Instead of new technologies, Mr. Candito said, what's needed are tighter requirements by enforcement agencies to force polluters to clean up quickly after spills occur. Lax regulations, he said, allow shippers and owners to make pre-spill arrangements with cleanup companies that may not be equipped to get the job done.

The Coast Guard is working on tightening its cleanup requirements, according to John Caplis, lieutenant commander in the preparedness and planning division of the agency's Office of Response in Washington.

He pointed out that the Coast Guard is rewriting its oil-spill planning requirements, and the new rules are expected to force shippers and owners that operate under the Coast Guard's jurisdiction to have arrangements with companies that can provide cleanup services using more than just mechanical methods.

Lt. Commander Caplis could say little about the proposed regulations, because they have not yet been published in the Federal Register, but he explained that the Coast Guard wants shippers and facility owners to contract for cleanup services that use dispersant technology and, possibly, in-situ burning.

"Burning is something that has not been used as much as dispersants," he said. As a result, "we are considering a less-aggressive approach" in requiring oil shippers to contract with cleanup firms that can perform in-situ burning.

Dispersants are getting more attention, Lt. Commander Caplis said, because some of the agents "developed in the last few years are more effective in their ability to disperse oil into the water."

Lt. Commander Caplis said that the requirements must be published in the Federal Register before they go into effect, and there currently is no timetable for when publication will take place.