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HAZARDOUS MATERIAL SPILLS: A DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL DATA
Citation:
Buckley, J. AND S. Wiener. HAZARDOUS MATERIAL SPILLS: A DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL DATA. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-78/066.
Description:
The ultimate goal of this study was the prevention of hazardous material spills through application of research effort. The immediate objective was to provide guidance for the choice of research priorities for spill prevention through documentation and analysis of historical incidents involving hazardous material spills. Data were analyzed for the period January 1, 1971 through June 30, 1973. In excess of 15,000 incidents were examined, resulting in the documentation of approximately 10 percent as hazardous material spills. To allow comparison of spills of different materials, a hazard potential scheme was developed, incorporating toxicity and quantity spilled, to rank an incident on a hazard potential scale ranging from one to ten. A pragmatic approach to this problem was taken and the scheme developed is specific to the needs of this study rather than a general mechanism for comparing spills. Primary and secondary causes of hazardous material spills in various operational areas (In Transit, Loading-Unloading Areas, In Plant Storage, In Plant Processing) were identified. The data were treated to find the frequency and distribution of hazardous material spills by cause, operational area and hazard potential.