Analysis of Clean Water Act in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

Analysis of Clean Water Act in Saudi Arabia The seawater around Saudi Arabia consisted of the Red Sea from the west, Persian Gulf from the east, and the Gulf of Aden from the south west of the country. The country’s big coasts from those three sides give it the access to a wealth of marine life with coral reefs. Those reefs are home of many endangered species. Additionally, the sea ports on those three are major sources of trade, food, and tourism. Moreover, the government of Saudi Arabia was able to use those three seas as source for water which they desalinate. On the other hand, beneath those seas laying the country’s most important source, which is oil. With the largest reservation of petroleum in the world, Saudi Arabia is one of the leading countries in the petrochemical industry. The huge amount of production everyday is guaranteeing the decrease in the country’s shortage of many other resources, such as water, energy, and food supplies. However, in order to get this oil out from under the ground, the government had to dig deep in the sea, which destroys the reefs and the environment around it. In contrast with digging, the First Gulf War, 1991, had a great impact on the oil field and the environment around them by causing a lot of spills. Oil spills are one of the most inevitable threats that endanger the status of human and marine life that depends on clean water, therefore, as a precaution, laws must be made to address these threats. Therefore, this paper will address the Saudi Arabia Law and how it dealt with such manner, which considered a new topic in this country in contrast to the United States of America law, “The Clean Water Act,” CWA. These two laws are significant to the implementation of precautionary and mitigating measures to the dire threats of oil pollution in the seas. I. Factual Background Spills happen due to many reasons. One of them is natural disasters, such as hurricanes, storms, and earthquakes. Another reason is intentional acts of violence, such as wars, vandals, or dumping, leakage from tankers, pipelines, storage tanks, even by oil wells blowing up. When such a thing occurs, fish, marine birds and mammals get covered by grease and oil which kill them. Oil causes fish on the shore to get stuck on the land to starve to death or to sink under it and die slowly. Many others suffer illness and later death from ingesting the oil. The environmental carnage in the marine environment resulting from oil spills like Torrey Canyon (1967), Argo Merchant (1976), Amoco Cadiz (1978), Exxon Valdez (1989), and the Sea Empress (1996), makes a strong case for the adoption of effective pollution prevention measures. Aside from marine and aquatic wildlife, human life is also threatened by this event. For this reason environmental protection in Saudi Arabia is highly regulated both by internal legislation as well as international treaties to protect its waters from pollution. The war that took place in Kuwait in 1991 caused major oil spills and fires in the vast oil wells and greenhouse gas spread over a large area of the Persian Gulf. The First Gulf War of 1991 caused the spill damage in coastal areas in some countries and the impact on marine life. In fact, the Army of the former Iraqi regime burned more than 732 oil wells, which considered the largest environmental disaster that faced the country of Kuwait and all of its neighbors including Saudi Arabia. Resulted in environmental damage, local, regional and global, has also dropped the coalition forces in the forty-three days of the war is at least 88 thousand tons of ammunition and explosives, including uranium bombs. After the War was done King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ordered to begin a project to clean the beaches and land affected by the war directly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991. The 800 square kilometers of beaches and some inland sites affected by the war were cleaned and until today the process still going. Prince Turki bin Nasser bin Abdul Aziz, General President of the Meteorology and Environment Protection in Saudi Arabia said “That the size of the compensation claimed by Saudi Arabia as a result of what has happened in environmental pollution during the Gulf War early nineties the calendar was about $ 28 billion” He pointed out that Saudi Arabia has been under beaches more than 8 million cubic meters of sand contaminated with oil visible, which tore a large portion of marine life and the damage will take the country over 100 years in order to treat it. Because of this disasters the risks that can occur because of oil spill is much more expensive than prevention. Laws are made to make sure that oil spill in the future can be mitigated and immediate response can be made by the country. II. CWA Background The laws governing clean water are enshrined in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian Basic Law of Governance (issued by Royal Order No. A/91 on 1/3/1992), which is effectively its constitution based on Islamic Law. Article 32 provides that: “The State shall endeavor to preserve, protect and improve the environment and prevent its pollution." Two further regulatory controls are the General Environment Law, issued by the Royal Decree No. 34 dated 28/7/1422H, corresponding to 16/10/2001 and the Executive Regulation of the General Environment Law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Umm Al – Qura Gazette, issue No. 3964, dated 28/8/1424, corresponding to 24/10/2003. The government authority charged with the responsibility of protecting and preserving the environment is the Meteorology and Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA). The functions of MEPA is similar to the EPA in the United States. This institution is responsible for safeguarding the environmental welfare of the country. Saudi Aramco, an Arabian American Oil Company, the state owned national oil company in Saudi Arabia is the worlds leading producer of oil. The development of oil spill contingency plans and the staging of pollution control equipment stockpiles are among the precautionary measures taken by Aramco. Saudi Aramco is a member of five major oil cooperatives. These are the Gulf Area Oil Companies Mutual Aid Organization (GAOCMAO), Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), Marine Preservation Association (MPA), Marine Industries Resources-Gulf (MRIG) and Clean Caribbean Cooperative (CCC). In the event of an oil spill, Saudi Arabia may seek aid for oil spill equipment and stockpiles from these five cooperatives. According to Saleh O. Balawi, superintendent of Saudi Aramco in 1999 (2), as an added precaution against oil spill, Saudi Aramco has made the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) its partner. In case of oil spills, they have access to PAJ’s equipment and can be helped by countries who are also members of GAOCMAO. In 1999 they have also conducted oil spill exercises with PAJ to practice emergency response situations against oil spills. Vela International Marine Limited conducts five oil drills annually and in order to meet the requirements of the USA’s Oil Pollution Act of 1990, Aramco Services Company acts as the Qualified Individual on behalf of Vela and provides a spill management team for the Western Hemisphere. (Mohammed H Zayer, 2001 International Oil Spill Conference Page 726). III. Analysis of CWA Issues Three salient features of how the Clean Water Law of Saudi Arabia works are: First, stops the polluting party and making them rectify the negative impacts they caused. Second, submit an MEPA report on steps taken to prevent further breaches. Third, it can insist on penalties which can range up to an SAR 500,00 fine, compensation, facility closure for 90 days and imprisonment. (as stated by the Al-Tamimi Law Update, Issue 215) On 24 April 1978, Saudi Arabia participated in the Kuwait Regional Convention for Co-operation on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution along with Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Convention placed a specific duty on the signatories to take appropriate measures to “prevent, abate and combat pollution…resulting from exploration and exploitation of the bed of the territorial sea and its sub-soil and the continental shelf.” (Kuwait Exploration Protocol, Articles 7 and 13). Saudi Arabia is member to the 1982 Regional Convention for the Conservation of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Environment which is also known as the Jeddah Convention. The convention produced two important instruments: (a) an "Action Plan for the Conservation of the Marine Environment and Coastal Areas in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden"; and (b) a "Protocol Concerning Regional Cooperation in Combating Pollution by Oil and Other Harmful Substances in Cases of Emergency." These sought to preserve and protect the special hydrographic and ecological characteristics of the marine environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In contrast, the USA law framework where the CWA (Clean Water Act) and the OPA (Oil Pollution Act) regulate oil spills in the United States jurisdictions. With the introduction of the CWA, America dealt with the nation’s water pollution by mandating the dischargers of effluents and other pollutants to hold a government permits before they could do any other marine or aquatic activity that can result to an oil spill. Rather than allowing member states to set their own standards for water safety, the main authority to ensure the implementing of safe water standards as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In response to the Exxon Valdes oil spill in Alaska where 100,000 and 300,000 seabirds and 3,500 to 5,000 sea otters were killed, the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) which amended section 311 of the CWA was introduced in 1990. (Castro and Huber, 409). OPA provides for oil spill requirements, reporting obligations and spill response planning and authorities. It sets out that National Resource Damage Assessment studies must be done after the oil spill to assess the extent of damage and that the company who spilled the oil must pay for the spill cleanup. This Act also puts money aside (from taxes) to help pay for spill cleanups. To compare the Saudi Arabian Clean Water Law and the US Clean Water Act, there are several points that needs to be compared. The first point is abatement at source. To compare this, the question that needs to be asked is “how does the law regulate industries/companies that can potentially cause oil spill?” The CWA mandates the EPA as the responsible for non-transportation related oil facilities and onshore operations. The EPA makes sure that the facilities have a workable Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan that will address all potential spills. The SPCC plan must be fully implemented by the facilities. It has to be consistent with the National Contingency Plan and Area Contingency plan. For the trarnsport-related, fuel tankers and off-shore facilities meanwhile, the Coastguard is responsible for regulating SPCCs. Meanwhile, in Saudi’s General Environmental Law, Article 9 states that, “in coordination and cooperation with the concerned agencies, the Competent Agency (MEPA) shall develop an environmental disaster management plan based on an inventory of local, regional and international capabilities. Concerned agencies shall establish and enhance emergency plans, as required, to protect the environment from pollution hazards resulting from emergencies caused by their projects during the performance of their activities. Concerned agencies shall establish and enhance emergency plans, as required, to protect the environment from pollution hazards resulting from emergencies caused by their projects during the performance of their activities (“General Environmental Law” n.p.). This means that the MEPA is the main agency that is monitoring the planning of oil industries planning of oil spill precautionary measures. Second point of analysis is when there is an oil spill in the coasts of the United States. According to the CWA and OPA, the first instance is when the spill is reported. The responsible party should report any oil spill that came from their industry or company so that a response team can immediately deploy and address the issue. Any other witness of the oil spill can report to the authorities as well. Usually, the agencies concerned are the EPA and Coastguard. If the responsible party fails to report the leak or spill intentionally (after sufficient proof) they will be liable to criminal charges and removal costs of the oil spill. Any other injured party like the Federal government, state or local government, private entities and Indian tribes can sue for damages as well. The reason for this is because the spill might have an effect to their earning capacity or health, and the liable party should compensate them for the loss that might have been incurred due to the oil spills. On the other hand, according to the Saudi Arabian law, in Article 18 of the General Environment Law, “whoever violates the provisions of Article fourteen of the General Environmental law shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years, by a fine not to exceed SR 500,000 or both. (M/17) dated 11 Ramadan 1416, and without prejudice to any severe penalty imposed by Islamic laws or provided for in other regulations, whoever violates the provisions of Article fourteen of the General Environmental law shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not to exceed five years, by a fine not to exceed SR 500,000 or both. An appropriate compensation shall be ordered and the violator shall be obligated to eliminate the violation.” In addition to this, the vessel that is carry the oil will be detained not exceeding 90 days. There will also be compensation by the violator and they are obligated to eliminate the violation. In case of recurrence, the maximum limit of imprisonment shall be raised but may not exceed double the initial term, or the maximum limit of the fine shall be increased but may not exceed double the initial fine or both. There are significant differences between the US law and the Saudi Arabian law when it comes to the event of oil spills. First, the Saudi Law also adheres to the Islamic Law, meaning there are customary principles and rules dealing with the Shariah. This accepts as valid treaties to which Islamic states are parties and accepts customary rules and principles which do not run contrary to the basic principles and rules of the Shariah (“Islamic Law” n.p.). However, modern times does not observe the customary practices very strictly as of late. This is because there is increased flexibility in the law. In the US meanwhile, their law is entirely based on their Constitution, whereas the Saudi Law comes from the Islamic law as well. Another difference between the two laws is the plaintives in the oil spill case. According to the Saudi Law when there is a notification of an oil spill, all reports must be submitted to a Grievance Bureau who will then evaluate the merits of the case and seek appropriate action on the matter. The report may come from any public or private individual. Any violation of the laws must also be reported in the Grievance Bureau within 60 days. If a complaint is not made in 60 days the plaintiffs right to complain is forfeit and the penalty stipulated in the charge will be implemented. For accumulative environmental, health and social impacts, the matter will also be submitted to the Grievance Bureau who will assess the damages the violator has imposed negatively on the environment, health and society. This is overridden by Article 21 which then states that if the scope of the violation is greatly detrimental impacts to health and the environment, the violations will be removed (if it will aggravate the situation) and appropriate actions will be immediately realized by capable parties. All costs will be at the expense of the violator, which is separate from the fines and penalties as well. Meanwhile, in the US Law of CWA, there is also a difference in oil spill action. In the US, there are trustees of the environement that will assess the damages when there is an oil spill. The OPA requires that the federal, state, and tribal governments to designate officials as trustees of the natural resources. If these natural resources are damaged by oil spills (covered by the OPA) the trustee is authorized to assess the damages and develop a plan for its restoration, rehabilitation or replacement of the resources (“Chapter 8: Oil Spills, Clean Water Act 311 and Oil Pollution Act” n.p.) Finally, the US Law and Saudi Law are different because of the plaintives of the case. In the Saudi Law, the plaintiffs can be any private or public individual but the case will remain to be a state case. The cases will be addressed to the Grievance Bureau who will then determine the appropriate penalty and fines that the violator will paying. The compensation is to the environmental damages brought to the State and also to the injured parties. In the US Law, any citizen, federal, local or any other entity can file a suit against the violator of the OPA. The federal or local government may sue for lost taxes or other revenues and for increased costs of public services resulting from an oil spill; and the trustees of the Federal government or Indian tribes may sue for damages for injury to, or destruction of natural resources, including the costs of assessing the damage (ibid, n.p). In conclusion, Saudi Arabian government legislation in Article 32, general environment law and executive regulation together with Kuwaitis and Jeddah Conventions form the legal backbone securing its seas against oil spill damage. Although, the Government of Saudi Arabia work hard to clean up the coast after the war, Kuwait 1991 the problem is still going until today because of the second gulf war ,2003-now. The health implications of the oil spill is so great that even today many people have suffered diseases due to the environmental pollution of the oil spills. In summary, there are also very significant differences of the Saudi Law and the US Law when it comes to oil spills. First is the Saudi law is based from Islamic law and the US law is based on their Constitution. The second difference is that the Saudi Law has a Grievance Bureau which hears all the cases against the oil spill violators. This body also decides what penalty to impose on violators. In the US, they have “trustees” which are like the Grievance board but they are different because they have more decisive power over the situations. The trustees are also responsible for assessing the damage and determining reparation actions for the elimination of the oil spill. The similarity between them is that both Grievance Bureau and Trustees will incur all costs at the expense of the violators. And last point is that the plaintiffs are different in each country. The reporting procedure has similarities but in Saudi, if there will be no complaint filed in the Grievance Bureau after 60 days of the case, they will be just imposing the fines on the violator. In the US law, all plaintiffs who can sue for diminished earning capacity or health etc. can claim compensation for such damages. They place emphasis on Indian tribes also because these are native people of the US and they have special privileges especially in their territory. The US Law is very strict in imposing the fines because of the damage in their coastal and marine life. Finally, Saudi Aramco is well equipped and trained to deal with oil spills, as seen from the Gulf War Oil Spill carnage in 1991 the region is indeed very susceptible to stop oil spills which cause mass death to precious sea life. In fact, they have established partnerships with petroleum associations all over the world to make their response in oil spill more effective and efficient. This partnerships will further improve their performance in combating the dangers of oil pollution to marine and human life. It has also been seen that the international environmental awareness is helpful in giving emphasis in the dangers of oil pollution. In fact, the Kuwait and Jeddah Conventions may improved the situation or not, only set out environmental aims and remediation clauses but also address the important question of civil liability in the case of oil spills. End Notes 1) Al Tamimi and Company. “Law Update” Issue 215. Feb 2009 2) Balawi, Saleh O. “Joint Saudi Aramco/PAJ Oil Spill Exercise” Nov. 1999 Web. 3) “Chapter 8: Oil Spills, Clean Water Act 311, and the Oil Pollution Act” N.d. Web. 4) “General Environmental Law” N.d. Web. 5) “Islamic Law” N.d. Web. 6) Kuwait Regional Convention for Co-operation on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution, Kuwait Exploration Protocol, Article 7 and 13, Kuwait. 1978. Print. 7) Mohammed H Zayer. Saudi Aramco. “Saudi Aramco Oil Spill Approach, Prevention and Readiness” 2001 International Oil Spill Conference Page 726. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 2001. Print 8) Peter, Castro, and Michael Huber. “Marine Biology”, 7th Ed. New York: McGraw- Hill. 2007. Print. 9) Scientific Horizons Magazine , July 2/2009 10) Alsharq-Alawsat Newspaper March 21/2007 Read More

Oil spills are one of the most inevitable threats that endanger the status of human and marine life that depends on clean water, therefore, as a precaution, laws must be made to address these threats. Therefore, this paper will address the Saudi Arabia Law and how it dealt with such manner, which considered a new topic in this country in contrast to the United States of America law, “The Clean Water Act,” CWA. These two laws are significant to the implementation of precautionary and mitigating measures to the dire threats of oil pollution in the seas. I. Factual Background Spills happen due to many reasons.

One of them is natural disasters, such as hurricanes, storms, and earthquakes. Another reason is intentional acts of violence, such as wars, vandals, or dumping, leakage from tankers, pipelines, storage tanks, even by oil wells blowing up. When such a thing occurs, fish, marine birds and mammals get covered by grease and oil which kill them. Oil causes fish on the shore to get stuck on the land to starve to death or to sink under it and die slowly. Many others suffer illness and later death from ingesting the oil.

The environmental carnage in the marine environment resulting from oil spills like Torrey Canyon (1967), Argo Merchant (1976), Amoco Cadiz (1978), Exxon Valdez (1989), and the Sea Empress (1996), makes a strong case for the adoption of effective pollution prevention measures. Aside from marine and aquatic wildlife, human life is also threatened by this event. For this reason environmental protection in Saudi Arabia is highly regulated both by internal legislation as well as international treaties to protect its waters from pollution.

The war that took place in Kuwait in 1991 caused major oil spills and fires in the vast oil wells and greenhouse gas spread over a large area of the Persian Gulf. The First Gulf War of 1991 caused the spill damage in coastal areas in some countries and the impact on marine life. In fact, the Army of the former Iraqi regime burned more than 732 oil wells, which considered the largest environmental disaster that faced the country of Kuwait and all of its neighbors including Saudi Arabia. Resulted in environmental damage, local, regional and global, has also dropped the coalition forces in the forty-three days of the war is at least 88 thousand tons of ammunition and explosives, including uranium bombs.

After the War was done King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ordered to begin a project to clean the beaches and land affected by the war directly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991. The 800 square kilometers of beaches and some inland sites affected by the war were cleaned and until today the process still going. Prince Turki bin Nasser bin Abdul Aziz, General President of the Meteorology and Environment Protection in Saudi Arabia said “That the size of the compensation claimed by Saudi Arabia as a result of what has happened in environmental pollution during the Gulf War early nineties the calendar was about $ 28 billion” He pointed out that Saudi Arabia has been under beaches more than 8 million cubic meters of sand contaminated with oil visible, which tore a large portion of marine life and the damage will take the country over 100 years in order to treat it.

Because of this disasters the risks that can occur because of oil spill is much more expensive than prevention. Laws are made to make sure that oil spill in the future can be mitigated and immediate response can be made by the country. II. CWA Background The laws governing clean water are enshrined in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian Basic Law of Governance (issued by Royal Order No. A/91 on 1/3/1992), which is effectively its constitution based on Islamic Law. Article 32 provides that: “The State shall endeavor to preserve, protect and improve the environment and prevent its pollution.

" Two further regulatory controls are the General Environment Law, issued by the Royal Decree No. 34 dated 28/7/1422H, corresponding to 16/10/2001 and the Executive Regulation of the General Environment Law in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Umm Al – Qura Gazette, issue No.

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