Seventeen American white pelicans were recently spotted in Texas with oil covering their feathers, Inside Climate News reported.
What's happening?
While the source of the oil is still unknown and being investigated by authorities in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, what happened here is not exactly the world's biggest mystery. The pelicans, on their way to Lake Balmorhea in West Texas, very likely stopped for a rest in one of the many oil well waste pits located in the area.
"The pelicans were migrating south for the winter and stopping at water bodies like Lake Balmorhea along the way, but TPWD has not pinpointed an exact location where the oiling may have occurred," agency spokesperson Kirk McDonnell said. "The investigation is ongoing."
Why is oil waste such a threat to wildlife?
Most of us are familiar with the tragic images of oil-covered birds that often accompany oil spill disasters (of which there have been too many to even begin to list).
The difference between those situations and this one, however, is that unlike an oil spill, which happens by accident and ostensibly has at least some chance of being cleaned up, much of the oil waste pits sitting around Texas are there by design. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil and gas industry, does not penalize oil companies for having open pits in which birds can land.
The result of this policy is hundreds of preventable bird deaths every year.
While bird deaths are often cited as a concern when it comes to building wind turbines, MIT Climate put things in perspective: "A 2012 study found that wind projects kill 0.269 birds per gigawatt-hour of electricity produced, compared to 5.18 birds killed per gigawatt-hour of electricity from fossil fuel projects. That's in part due to collisions with equipment (wind turbines aren't the only energy infrastructure birds can fly into), but mostly because of the environmental impact of fossil fuels."
What's being done about the oil pits?
Several groups in the state are lobbying for stricter rules for the oil industry — which, it goes without saying, does an immense amount of damage to our environment, even discounting all the birds that die directly as a result of open pits.
Among those lobbying for change is Commission Shift, a nonpartisan organization focused on reforming oil and gas regulation in Texas.
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Definitely 👍 "The language [the RRC uses] is vague and operators can get around it," Commission Shift Executive Director Virginia Palacios told Inside Climate News. "The RRC should have done more in these draft rule amendments to incorporate best practices."
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