the cases of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador

The risk of oil spills is particularly serious in Ecuador, where feed pipelines run parallel to the regional road network. Credit: © Dr Morley Read. Shutterstock.
Mitigation and remediation of oil spills

Environmental management protocols by oil companies focus on the avoidance and mitigation of oil spills. If a spill occurs, the first priority is to recover as much oil as possible. After that, the impacts must be remediated.

Spills on land are easily contained, thus facilitating recovery. Polluted soil can be scooped up and taken to treatment facilities, known as ‘land farms’, where specially selected bacteria break down the long-chain organic molecules and aromatic compounds that constitute crude oil. If left untreated, natural processes will eventually degrade and decompose the oil, although it will take many decades and, in the interim, poison the local environment.

Spills into water are even more problematic. Oil slicks rapidly expand across the entire surface area of the water body while streams and rivers will amplify its impact by transporting it downstream. Oil slicks from spills on the Coca River in Ecuador in 2013 and 2020 reached Peru more than 250 kilometers downstream. Backwater habitats, such as seasonal marshes and palm swamps, are particularly vulnerable because they are characterized by standing water where oil is trapped. As water levels fall during the dry season, the oil slick will permeate soil surfaces and poison the benthic habitats that are the foundation of aquatic food webs. Microbial degradation occurs more slowly in these oxygen-starved environments because oil-eating bacteria largely work via aerobic metabolic processes. Oil is especially toxic to frogs because of their fragile and highly permeable skin; fish and waterfowl will also die when exposed to oil.

The impact from oil spills in the Amazon is immediately felt by the human communities. Indigenous and ribereña/ribeirinha communities are clustered along rivers and highly dependent on fishing for their livelihoods. Not surprisingly, they are the most vocal critics of the oil industry in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. They protest about the increasing occurrence of oil spills, as well as the failure of institutions to remediate past spills and fairly compensate them for damages they suffer over the short and long term.

In Colombia, the struggle is led by representatives of the Siona, an Indigenous group settled along the banks of the Río Putumayo whose militancy has been assisted by members of their ethnic group in Ecuador. Ecuador’s indigenous groups, particularly Waorani, Cofan, Siona and Kichwa, have succeeded in articulating their demands through civil protest. However, they have elevated their grievances into the judicial sphere, winning important decisions in both domestic and international courts. The situation is more chaotic in Peru due to a national proclivity for civil disobedience, where protestors associated with the Achuar, Awajún and Huambisa have essentially shut down the ONP.

Governments are highly dependent on oil revenues and are not eager to forgo revenues in favor of remediating environmental problems which impact a very small fraction of the national population. It is difficult to hold state-owned companies responsible due to the political protection inherent in their corporate governance systems. Attempts to hold multinationals accountable have likewise not prospered, in part, because legal systems have been compromised by corrupt acts that provide companies with an opportunity to prolong and deflect legal actions (see Text Box 5.1).

Secondary impacts

The secondary and indirect impacts caused by the development and exploitation of hydrocarbons has provoked even more concern. The experience of Ecuador in the 1970s and 80s, where large-scale deforestation accompanied the development of the oil fields in Sucumbíos province, is an example of the power of synergies from multiple policies. In this case, the government decided to link the development of the oil fields with investments in roads, agricultural development, poverty reduction, land reform and national security. More than forty per cent of Ecuador’s total Amazonian deforestation has occurred as a consequence of that decision. A similar process happened in Colombia with the development of oil fields just across the border in the Department of Putumayo.

These policies were not repeated, however, in Northern Peru where oil fields were developed using techniques not unlike an offshore oil platform. Equipment was moved via rivers while the pipeline was built, without creating a permanent trunk highway. Local roads were built to link oil-well platforms, and a temporary access road was established to service the construction of the pipeline, but it was not improved with embankments or bridges. Consequently, it did not create an immigration corridor between the populated areas of the Peruvian coast and the remote landscapes of the oil fields.

The offshore (or enclave) approach was also used in the development of the Camisea gas field in the lowland provinces of Cusco Department when it was connected to overseas and domestic markets by a gas pipeline in 2004. Similarly, the Brazilians chose to develop the Urucú gas field between 2006 and 2009 with a minimum of road building and adopted a policy to discourage settlements. There is no evidence or reports of settlement or unauthorized forest clearing linked to either of those projects.

“A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” is a book by Timothy Killeen and contains the author’s viewpoints and analysis. The second edition was published by The White Horse in 2021, under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0 license).

To read earlier chapters of the book, find Chapter One here, Chapter Two here, Chapter Three here and Chapter Four here.

Chapter 5. Mineral commodities: a small footprint, a large impact and a great deal of money

Mineral commodities: the wealth that generates most impacts in the Pan Amazon | Introduction March 21st, 2024
The environmental and social liabilities of the extractive sector March 26th, 2024
Mining in the Pan Amazon in pursuit of the world’s most precious metal April 4th, 2024
Illegal mining in the Pan Amazon: an ecological disaster for floodplains and local communities April, 9th
The environmental mismanagement of enduring oil industry impacts in the Pan Amazon April, 17th
Outdated infrastructure and oil spills: the cases of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador April, 25th
State management and regulation of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon May 2nd, 2024
Is the extractive sector really favorable for the Pan Amazon’s economy? May 8th, 2024
Extractive industries look at degraded land to avoid further deforestation in the Pan Amazon May 15th, 2024
Global markets and their effects on resource exploitation in the Pan Amazon May 21st, 2024

Article published by Mayra

Activism, Amazon Mining, Biodiversity, Environment, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oil, Oil Spills, Pollution, Protected Areas, Research

Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, South America

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Publish date : 2024-04-25 03:00:00

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