robomatic, in your opening post you said: "Oil Spills do happen, but there is a very rigorous definition of what constitutes an oil spill. I believe it is a single drop.

In actuality, they are NOT required to report a spill unless it exceeds 55 gallons.. That's a far cry from one drop.

AP reported today that BP and its associates failed to report at least two spills of drilling muds (which include crude oil) of as much as 294 gallons.