About Environmental Emergencies
What is an Environmental Emergency?
An environmental emergency occurs when there is a threat to the environmental quality of water, land and/or air. Possible threats include oil and hazardous materials spills, gas leaks, and water-related debris flows. In BC, environmental emergencies are most commonly caused by petroleum products and other hazardous materials spills. The Environmental Emergency Management Program is responsible for managing the response to spills of dangerous goods and hazardous materials.
Impacts of a Major Spill
An environmental emergency can have numerous and long-lasting effects. A significant event such as a major oil spill:
Destroys habitat and wildlife
Physical contamination and smothering are primary mechanisms that adversely affect wildlife, particularly inter-tidal organisms. Oil can also change the physical characteristics of a habitat. Clean-up activities can add to these effects by crushing, removing, and damaging habitat or life. Birds and mammals suffer the greatest acute impact when they meet the oil/water interface and become contaminated. Reduction in thermal capability and directed toxicity from fumes and ingestion are the greatest causes of mortality.
Destabilizes Marine Communities
Marine communities , such as planktonic waters, wetlands (estuaries/marshes), kelp-beds and mud-flats, and marine populations such as seabirds, seals sea otters, and whales have variable resiliency to oil spills - from highly tolerant (plankton, kelp beds) to very intolerant (estuaries and sea otters). Impacts to communities and populations are very difficult to measure due to lack of scientific methods to measure, long-term, sub-lethal, and chronic ecological impacts.
Degrades Amenities
Contamination of amenity areas is a common feature with many oil spills, leading to public disquiet and concern regarding recreational activities. Marine oil spills in particular lead to concerns regarding impacts on boating, sun-bathing, angling and other recreational pursuits. The degree of impact on recreation is largely determined by the season in which the incident occurs, with summer being the highest impact period due to recreation and tourism activities.
Harms Economic Activities
The tourism industry is the industry most likely to suffer from adverse economic effects after an oil spill. For instance, hotel and restaurant businesses, diving and fishing charters, rentals, and marina operations can be significantly impacted by a spill. There can also be direct impacts to commercial fishing and aquaculture due to closures or concerns about tainted products. The impacts to economic activities are sometimes worsened by media press.
Impacts Human Welfare
A spill’s impact on human welfare is often under-rated. BC communities, and the public in general, are deeply passionate about maintaining a safe, clean environment. There is no tolerance for accidental spills of hazardous materials of any quantity. During an incident, there can be widespread public stress and anxiety over long-term economic uncertainty and loss of income. In addition, a large influx of money into a community to help with spill response can cause division within a community. For instance, people who volunteer from their “hearts” may feel resentment towards those who offer their services for a fee.
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