On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on the Bligh Reef in Alaska, marking a turning point in public awareness of the risks of maritime transportation of hydrocarbons.
Despite the promises of the federal government and the oil industry to prioritize safety when approving the pipeline that would connect northern Alaska with Valdez, the spill of 37,000 tons of crude oil devastated ecosystems, communities, and local economies, revealing systemic negligence ranging from the lack of a functional radar on the ship, which caused the grounding, to the ineffectiveness of Alyeska’s contingency plan, which lacked an emergency response team ready to act.
The need to use chemical dispersants, with their known harmful effects on wildlife, and the slow response further exacerbated the disaster. Although ExxonMobil invested over 5 billion dollars in the cleanup, the ecosystem still shows evident repercussions and coastal communities, as highlighted by fisherman Mike Webber in statements to the New York Times two decades after the incident, suffered irreparable losses to their livelihoods.
This disaster was not only an environmental, social, and economic tragedy, but also a catalyst for profound changes in industry regulations and practices. The United States Congress responded with the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990, a landmark legislation that dramatically raised safety and liability standards in maritime transportation of hydrocarbons.
The OPA, subsequently adopted as a model by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), introduced measures to minimize risk, including the use of double-hull vessels, segregated ballast systems, registration and monitoring of each ship to ensure compliance with regulations and stricter navigation standards. Regarding the crew, higher training and certification requirements were established, and onboard alcohol consumption was banned.
However, the risk of new spills persists, especially in environmentally sensitive areas with limited response capacity.
Is Argentina Prepared for an Exxon Valdez in Río Negro?
Today, the construction of Argentina’s largest crude oil export port at Punta Colorada, Río Negro, raises a very serious question: could this project become the next “Exxon Valdez,” with catastrophic consequences for Patagonia’s biodiversity and the communities that depend on it?
The choice of the Golfo San Matías for the installation of an oil pipeline and a loading terminal is deeply problematic, as it overlooks two highly relevant factors: the proximity to the Valdés Peninsula, a unique ecosystem declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and a local and national history of responses to spills that falls far short of being satisfactory, bordering on criminal negligence in some cases.
Various studies conducted by the Whale Conservation Institute, among other research entities, have identified the Golfo San Matías as a key area for the reproduction and nursing of the Southern Right Whale.
This key area, which is home to a population of 5,500 southern right whales, has shown signs of population recovery after being nearly driven to extinction due to pressure from commercial whaling until its prohibition in the mid-20th century. Individual monitoring shows intensive use of the coastal areas of San Matías, overlapping with the projected positions of the oil infrastructure.
The loading and unloading of hydrocarbons will undoubtedly impact this unique ecosystem and could trigger a catastrophe that would transform this site, currently a driver of the local economy thanks to responsible whale watching, into a desolate landscape.
The Exxon Valdez case marked a milestone and despite all changes in prevention measures, the question is whether Argentina would be prepared to face an event of this magnitude.
The potential impact of a spill in this area would be catastrophic for marine life, which includes not only Southern Right Whales but also sea lions and elephant seals, the world’s largest colony of Magellanic penguins, and a rich biodiversity that includes endangered species. However, the impact would not be limited to marine life; the coastal communities that depend mainly on fishing and whale watching tourism would be irreparably affected, leading to economic losses and permanent social impact.
The risk of a possible “Exxon Valdez” is not mere speculation. The Argentine coast, with its offshore exploitation infrastructure, loading buoys, and intense maritime traffic in the ports of Patagonia and Buenos Aires, has an extensive history of spills with inadequate responses.
Recent incidents are evidence of these deficiencies. In 2021, a spill in Catriel, Río Negro, exposed the improvisation of safety protocols, with the use of a simple canvas pool to contain the crude oil, contradicting provincial officials’ statements about the implementation of an adequate contingency plan.
Similarly, the three spills in Bahía Blanca between December 2023 and February 2024, which affected channels used by endangered species such as the Franciscana dolphin, revealed the lack of timely activation of the emergency protocols of the National System for Preparedness and Response to Pollution by Hydrocarbons and other Harmful and Potentially Hazardous Substances (PLANACON), according to Pablo Petracci, Director of the Bahía Blanca Marine Fauna Rescue Station (Erfam).
These examples, among many others, demonstrate the fragility of the prevention system and response to these types of disasters. The lack of infrastructure, trained personnel, robust contingency plans, and adequate financial resources for spill containment and cleanup exacerbates environmental, economic, and social damages.
Possible Environmental Consequences
If the project in Punta Colorada goes ahead, the waters of the Golfo San Matías will be exposed to the loading, dispatch, and transit of tanker ships with a capacity of 390,000 cubic meters every five days. This equals the annual movement of approximately 25 million cubic meters of hydrocarbons, equivalent to 155 million barrels of oil. The project is presented in a context of preexisting vulnerability.
This massive volume of transportation, combined with the history of incidents and the demonstrated lack of preparedness, as well as the proximity to such a unique and fragile ecosystem as the Valdés Peninsula and the advancement of other simultaneous hydrocarbon infrastructure projects in the region, exponentially multiply the risk factors of the Punta Colorada terminal. This makes it a scenario of very high risk.
The issue lies not only in the inevitable minor spills of daily operations, but in the very high probability of a spill of greater magnitude with catastrophic and lasting consequences.
The resulting environmental damage, combined with the exorbitant cleanup costs, would permanently destroy a unique natural heritage, making any economic benefit from the location of the Golfo San Matías insignificant.
By: Belén Braga, Whale Conservation Institute (ICB) and the Patagonian Sea Conservation Forum and Areas of Influence
Cover photo: EFE
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