How Environmental Regulators Can Address Human Factors in Oil Spill Prevention Using Crew Resource Management

• Date: 01 November 2010

40 ELR 11048 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 11-2010

tory of the United States, and the spill ranks among the larg-

est in history, the ndings of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)

and various congressional committees investigating the inci-

dent are not yet complete. Nonetheless, based upon news

reports, it appears that the accident was the result of technical

and human failures. From a cursory review of other major oil

spills, it appears that human factors have also played a signi-

cant role in the cause of many accidents and signicant release

of oil into the environment. ese circumstances suggest that

government regulators have not adequately addressed human

factors in oil spill prevention. Environmental agencies should

consider t he implementation of programs requiring the oil

industry to implement error prevention and management pro-

grams designed to reduce, minimize, and ultimately eliminate

human factors as a cause of oil spills. is author proposes that a

model similar to that being utilized by the commercial aviation

industry for the last 25 years called Crew Resource Manage-

ment (CRM) provides an excellent template for adoption. is

Article briey summarizes how human factors contributed to

several major oil spills, and then introduces the elements of

CRM and suggests means by which regulatory agencies could

require the oil industry to implement CRM training. Such

safety management systems can be implemented with a mini-

mum of “command-and-control” regulations.

I. Survey of Oil Spills Including Human

Factors

Although the ocial ndings and factual determinations

surrounding the Deepwater Horizon event have yet to be

released, congressional testimony and news reports strongly

suggest that human factors were one of the probable causes

of the oil spill. It is known that by the April 20th date of the

How Environmental Regulators

Can Address Human Factors

in Oil Spill Prevention Using

Crew Resource Management

by John Adams Hodge

John Adams Hodge is Special Counsel to the rm of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., in its Columbia, South

Carolina, oce. He has practiced environmental and aviation law for over 25 years. He is also a licensed Professional

Geologist. Mr. Hodge’s experience with Crew Resource Management (CRM) comes also from 20 years as a pilot

and instructor for a major airline where CRM training was integrated into training and ight operations. He is an

Adjunct Professor in the School of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of South Carolina.

Oil is released into the environment from natural

seeps and from human activities involved in the

exploration, production, transportation, and rene-

ment of oil and its distillation. e eect of oil on the marine

environment depends on many factors including the type of

oil and the characteristics of the environment into which the

oil is released, along with related climatic and meteorological

phenomena.1 In the marine environment, an oil spill envi-

ronmental sensitivity index (ESI) has been developed to

assess the potential risk to dierent types of shorelines

based upon such factors as the shoreline geomorphology,

coastal processes aecting the shoreline, and the biologi-

cal productivity and sensitivity of shoreline habitat.2 For

example, a coastal marsh would be considered a more

sensitive endpoint than an exposed rocky headland sub-

ject to signicant wave activity. At major oil spills, oiled

birds, mammals, and larger animals are captured in

photojournalist’s images, but the impact to macrofauna

and meiofauna often goes unreported and uncompen-

sated. ese biological resources are extremely impor-

tant, as the organisms form the basis for the food chain

in coastal and marine environments. Federal and state

statutes as well as related regulations provide for com-

prehensive regulation of various phases of petroleum

exploration, production, renement, transportation, and

storage, i.e., the oil industry. Missing from the current

regulatory approach are mechanisms to minimize the

role of human factors in oil spill prevention.

Inasmuch as the Deepwater Horizon accident has now been

characterized as the largest environmental disaster in the his-

1. J B, O S 79-89 (1997).

2. Jacqueline Michel et al., Application of an Oil Spill Vulnerability Index to the

Shoreline of Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, 2 E. G 2, 107-17. (1978).

Copyright © 2010 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.