Gov. Jerry Brown declares state of emergency for the Santa Barbara oil spill
What will the long-term environmental impact be on California’s coast? What does the accident say about safety culture within the oil industry?
Contact: Andrew Good at (213) 740-8606 or gooda@usc.edu.
Oil in the middle of protected coastal areas
“Nothing worked — they found out about this because people camping nearby or living nearby smelled it. Nothing happened on the part of the infrascture that could shut it down early.”
Phyllis Grifman, associate director of the USC Sea Grant program, is an expert in marine and environmental policy. She can discuss the potential environmental impact of the oil spill and how Gov. Jerry Brown’s emergency declaration can help the clean-up effort.
Grifman noted that the spill sits between two protected areas for endangered marine life. She said that safety infrastructure on the pipeline failed to detect the spill.
Contact: grifman@usc.edu.
What role did “the human factor” play in this accident?
“One of my biggest questions is: Why did it take the company so long to detect and stop the leak? This points to an important human problem in the safety culture issue.”
Naj Meshkati, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is an expert on industrial accidents and safety culture. In 2011, he authored an op-ed in The New York Times explaining the role that “the human factor” plays in pipeline accidents.
Contact: (310) 291-9948 or meshkati@usc.edu.
What impact will there be on local industries?
“This spill will have an impact on the local tourism industry given that the sight of oil on its pristine beaches does not help and also on local fisheries. There will be a spillover effect from the tourism impact on other local business. But I anticipate that the effect on the economy will be short-term (a few weeks) because the spill is not very large and so hopefully it will be contained soon.”
Raj Rajagopalan, professor of data sciences and operations at the USC Marshall School of Business, is an expert in supply chain management. He can address what the possible economic effects of the oil spill on local industry.
Contact: raj@marshall.usc.edu.
