Oil Spill Not Reported Thanks to Government Shutdown
Oct 17
Steven Jensen was out harvesting his wheat crops on September 29 when he discovered oil pooling.
"It was pretty ugly," he said. The nearby crop had "disintegrated, you wouldn't have known it was a wheat plant."
Jensen reported the incident and an emergency response team was at the site the next day, working to isolate the spill.
Under normal circumstances, the National Response Center would have taken quicker action to report this. The National Response Center is an organization staffed by Coast Guard personnel that receives reports about hazardous spills and then communicates that information to emergency response leaders.
According to its website, The National Response Center “is the sole federal point of contact for reporting oil and chemical spills.” Yet, on the same webpage, the following statement is highlighted, “Due to government shutdown, some services may not be available.”
The National Response Center should have reported this spill on its website within 24 hours of being filed. However, the government shutdown has delayed this process, and the report was not posted until October 8.
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/10/us-tesoro-spill-northdakota-idUSBRE9990VL20131010
http://www.nrc.uscg.mil/