The impact of the BP Baker report

Introduction

This study examined the impact of the British Petroleum (BP) Baker Panel Report, reviewing the March 2005 BP-Texas City explosion, on the field of process safety.

Method

Three hundred eighty-four subscribers of a process safety listserv responded to a survey two years after the BP Baker Report was published.

Results

Results revealed respondents in the field of process safety are familiar with the BP Baker Report, feel it is important to the future safety of chemical processing, and believe that the findings are generalizable to other plants beyond BP-Texas City. Respondents indicated that few organizations have administered the publicly available BP Process Safety Culture Survey. Our results also showed that perceptions of contractors varied depending on whether respondents were part of processing organizations (internal perspective) or government or consulting agencies (external perspective).

Conclusions

This research provides some insight into the beliefs of chemical processing personnel regarding the transportability and generalizability of lessons learned from one organization to another.

Impact on Industry

This study has implications for both organizational scientists and engineers in that it reveals perceptions about the primary mechanism used to share lessons learned within one industry about one major catastrophe (i.e., investigation reports). This study provides preliminary information about the perceived impact of a report such as this one.     

An Aquifer Classification System and Geographical Information System-Based Analysis Tool for Watershed Managers in the Western U.S.1

Payne, Scott M. and William W. Woessner, 2010. An Aquifer Classification System and Geographical Information System-Based Analysis Tool for Watershed Managers in the Western U.S. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(5):1003-1023. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00472.x Abstract: Aquifers and groundwater systems can be classified using a variety of independent methods to characterize geologic and hydraulic properties, the degree of connection with surface water, and geochemical conditions. In light of a growing global demand for water, an approach for classifying groundwater systems at the watershed scale is needed. A comprehensive classification system is proposed that combines recognized methods and new approaches. The purpose of classification is to provide groundwater professionals, policy makers, and watershed managers with a widely applicable and repeatable system that reduces sometimes cumbersome complex databases and analyzes to straightforward terminology and graphical representations. The proposed classification system uses basin geology, aquifer productivity, water quality, and the degree of groundwater/surface water connection as classification criteria. The approach is based on literature values, reference databases, and fundamental hydrologic and hydrogeologic principles. The proposed classification system treats dataset completeness as a variable and includes a tiered assessment protocol that depends on the quality and quantity of data. In addition, it assembles and catalogs groundwater information using a consistent set of nomenclature. It is designed to analyze and display results using Geographical Information System mapping tools.     

Impacts of atmospheric pollution on the plant communities of British acid grasslands

Air pollutants are recognised as important agents of ecosystem change but few studies consider the effects of multiple pollutants and their interactions. Here we use ordination, constrained cluster analysis and indicator value analyses to identify potential environmental controls on species composition, ecological groupings and indicator species in a gradient study of UK acid grasslands. The community composition of these grasslands is related to climate, grazing, ozone exposure and nitrogen deposition, with evidence for an interaction between the ecological impacts of base cation and nitrogen deposition. Ozone is a key agent in species compositional change but is not associated with a reduction in species richness or diversity indices, showing the subtly different drivers on these two aspects of ecosystem degradation. Our results demonstrate the effects of multiple interacting pollutants, which may collectively have a greater impact than any individual agent.     

A global assessment of chromium pollution using sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) as an indicator species

Chromium (Cr) is a well-known human carcinogen and a potential reproductive toxicant, but its contribution to ocean pollution is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to provide a global baseline for Cr as a marine pollutant using the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) as an indicator species. Biopsies were collected from free-ranging whales around the globe during the voyage of the research vessel The Odyssey. Total Cr levels were measured in 361 sperm whales collected from 16 regions around the globe detectable levels ranged from 0.9 to 122.6 μg Cr g tissue⁻¹ with a global mean of 8.8 ± 0.9 μg g⁻¹. Two whales had undetectable levels. The highest levels were found in sperm whales sampled in the waters near the Islands of Kiribati in the Pacific (mean = 44.3 ± 14.4) and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean (mean = 19.5 ± 5.4 μg g⁻¹). The lowest mean levels were found in whales near the Canary Islands (mean = 3.7 ± 0.8 μg g⁻¹) and off of the coast of Sri Lanka (mean = 3.3 ± 0.4 μg g⁻¹). The global mean Cr level in whale skin was 28-times higher than mean Cr skin levels in humans without occupational exposure. The whale levels were more similar to levels only observed previously in human lung tissue from workers who died of Cr-induced lung cancer. We conclude that Cr pollution in the marine environment is significant and that further study is urgently needed.     

A protein signal triggers sexual reproduction in Brachionus plicatilis (Rotifera)

The defining feature of the life cycle in monogonont rotifers such as Brachionus plicatilis (Muller) is alternation of asexual and sexual reproduction (mixis). Why sex is maintained in such life cycles is an important unsolved evolutionary question and one especially amenable to experimental analysis. Mixis is induced by a chemical signal produced by the rotifers which accumulates to threshold levels at high population densities. The chemical features of this signal were characterized using size exclusion, enzymatic degradation, protease protection assays, selective binding to anion ion exchange and C3 reversed phase HPLC columns, and the sequence of 17 N-terminal amino acids. These studies were carried out over two years beginning in 2003 using B. plicatilis Russian strain. When rotifer-conditioned medium was treated with proteinase K, its mixis-inducing ability was reduced by 70%. Proteinase K was added to medium auto-conditioned by 1 female ml⁻¹ where typically 17% of daughters became mictic and mixis was reduced to 1%. A cocktail of protease inhibitors added to conditioned medium significantly reduced degradation of the mixis signal by natural proteases. Conditioned medium subjected to ultrafiltration retained mixis-inducing activity in the >10 kDa fraction, but the <10 kDa fraction had no significant activity. The putative mixis signal bound to an anion exchange column, eluting off at 0.72 M NaCl. These fractions were further separated on a C3 reversed phase HPLC column and mixis-inducing activity was associated with a 39 kDa protein. Seventeen amino acids from the N-terminus have strong similarity to a steroidogenesis-inducing protein isolated from human ovarian follicular fluid. The 39 kDa protein is an excellent candidate for the rotifer mixis induction signal.     

Mercury Contamination of Fish and Its Implications for Other Wildlife of the Tapajós Basin, Brazilian Amazon

Abstract: Since 1979 the gold rush in the Brazilian Amazon has caused serious environmental damage to one of the most complex ecosystems on Earth. Mainly due to the toxicity of mercury to humans, this problem has received wide public attention and prompted many studies. Although these studies have involved sampling of fish, the negative effect of mercury contamination to fish themselves and other wildlife has been largely ignored. To assess the present level of mercury contamination of fish, and its implication for fish and other animals, we collected and examined data on mercury concentration in fish of the Brazilian Amazon, especially for the Tapajós basin, between 1991 and 1996. We conclude that omnivores and piscivores that live nearer to gold mining areas in the Tapajós basin are already at high risk of mercury toxification, especially reproductive failure. Mercury concentrations in these fish are also high enough to have detrimental effects on animals at higher trophic levels. The same conclusion applies to other mercury-contaminated areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Because most Amazonian rivers or their tributaries have favorable conditions for mercury contamination, we can expect the problem to persist in the Amazon for a long time, and the consequences are likely to become more significant in the future. These conclusions have important implications for all tropical rainforests where gold mining operations have caused extensive mercury pollution.     

Reducing risks of maintenance dredging on freshwater mussels (Unionidae) in the Big Sunflower River, Mississippi

In response to proposed dredging in a 122-km reach of the Big Sunflower River, Mississippi, we studied freshwater mussels (family: Unionidae) using qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative (0.25 m(2) total substratum removal) methods in 1987, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Our objectives were to identify important mussel resources, to devise methods for minimizing dredging risks, and to identify habitat improvement features. Approximately 60% of the fauna was located on two high-density shoals characterized by extreme dominance of the commercially valuable threeridge (Amblema plicata). Shallow nearshore and main channel areas comprised approximately 10 and 88% of the aquatic habitat in the project area; however, these areas were of less importance for mussels and supported densities of approximately 5 and 0.5 individuals/m(2), respectively. Throughout the project area the mussel fauna exhibited little or no evidence of recent recruitment, dominance of relatively few species (either A. plicata, or the bank climber Plectomerus dombeyanus), and low species diversity (H') and evenness. No federally listed endangered or threatened mussels were found, although the pyramid pigtoe (Pleurobema pyramidatum), a species listed as endangered in Mississippi, was collected in and upstream of the project area. Two other state-listed species, Plethobasus cyphyus (sheepnose) and Quadrula cylindrica (rabbitsfoot), were only found on gravelly shoals upriver of the project area. Maintenance plans were redesigned to minimize environmental damage; a hydraulic cutterhead dredge will be used in most of the mainstem to reduce risk to nearshore habitats. High-density assemblages on four shoals will not be dredged and 150 and 100 m buffer zones will be left immediately up and downriver. Enhancements for aquatic biota will be created with gravel substratum and wing dams.     

Day length,latitude and behavioural (in)flexibility in baboons<Emphasis Type="Italic"> (Papio cynocephalus ursinus</Emphasis>)

Annual cycles in day length are an important consideration in any analysis of seasonal behaviour patterns, since they determine the period within which obligate diurnal or nocturnal animals must conduct all of their essential activities. As a consequence, seasonal variation in day length may represent an ecological constraint on behaviour, since short winter days restrict the length of the time available for foraging in diurnal species (with long summer days, and thus short nights, a potential constraint for nocturnal species). This paper examines monthly variation in activity patterns over a 4-year study of chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) at De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa. Time spent feeding, moving, grooming and resting are all significant positive functions of day length, even before chance events such as disease epidemics and climatically mediated home range shifts have been accounted for. These results provide strong support for the idea that day length acts as an ecological constraint by limiting the number of daylight hours and thus restricting the active period at certain times of year. Day length variation also has important implications across populations. Interpopulation variation in resting time, and non-foraging activity in general, is a positive function of latitude, with long summer days at temperate latitudes apparently producing an excess of time that cannot profitably be devoted to additional foraging or social activity. However, it is the short winter days that are probably of greatest importance, since diurnal animals must still fulfil their foraging requirements despite the restricted number of daylight hours and elevated thermoregulatory requirements at this time of year. Ultimately this serves to restrict the maximum ecologically tolerable group sizes of baboon populations with increasing distance from the equator. Seasonal variation in day length is thus an important ecological constraint on animal behaviour that has important implications both within and between populations, and future studies at non-equatorial latitudes must clearly be mindful of its importance.     

The effect of sulfate-reducing bacteria on adsorption of 137Cs by soils from arid and tropical regions

Soils from different climatic regions of Australia were studied to determine their adsorption of (137)Cs, and the effect of microbial sulfate reduction on this adsorption. The soils consisted of a surface and regolith samples from the site of a proposed low and intermediate level radioactive waste repository in arid South Australia, and two red earth loam soils from an experimental plot in the tropical Northern Territory. The process of bacterial sulfate reduction substantially decreased the adsorption of (137)Cs to the arid and tropical soils, although extended incubation resulted in greater adsorption to the regolith sample. This could have implications for the mobility of radionuclides entering these soil ecosystems.