TECHNICAL API 656
THE COST OF NATURAL DISASTERS Philip Myers and Earl Crochet run through the latest updates coming to API 656 – Aboveground storage tank operations during uncontrollable natural disasters DURING THE first six months of 2021, there have been eight separate billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events across the US. The eye-opening plot in Figure 1 shows the magnitude of problems associated with natural disaster events, referred to as ‘natech’, which means ‘natural hazard-triggered technological event’. Natechs can occur any time natural disasters interact with petroleum or chemical storage facilities and their local associated societal infrastructure. A recent stretch of extreme cold weather in Texas was a good example of a serious natech. In this event important energy infrastructure was knocked out resulting in numerous problems and unfortunately, loss of life. As a current natech example on the west coast of the US, extreme heat is creating unprecedented wildfires threatening infrastructure, homes and lives. Certainly, the recent floods in China’s Henan Province are producing numerous serious natechs.
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A glance at Figure 1 quickly shows an increasing trend in both the number and the cost associated with US natechs. It also shows that the lion’s share can be attributed to severe storms and tropical cyclones or hurricanes. DEVELOPING GUIDANCE Work on natechs began in earnest with the Joint Research Center (JRC), which is a knowledge and science service that supports EU policy, as well as organisations like the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), which is the UN’s focal point for disaster risk reduction. Numerous papers began to appear in the early 2000s and continue to this day, primarily authored by Europeans. In August of 2017 the category 4 Hurricane Harvey deluged areas of southeast Texas, resulted in major flooding and 68 deaths. It cost society US$125 billion (€107 billion). A chemical incident was initiated by the flooding at an organic peroxides storage
facility in Crosby, Texas. The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigated this incident and called for industry to develop guidance related to natural disasters. As a result, in 2019 the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) published CCPS Monograph: Assessment of and planning for natural hazards, which was prompted by the request of the CSB to develop guidance for the combined natural disaster events and hazardous material releases. The American Petroleum Institute (API) Subcommittee on Aboveground Storage Tanks (SCAST) decided that it would be useful to address natechs issues related to petroleum storage facilities. Storage tank incidents caused by natechs are one of the most serious contributors to the problem, since they store large volumes of hazardous materials and are relatively ‘fragile’. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is participating, along with other organisations, in the development of a new publication, API 656, that will specifically address storage tanks and natech.
