...The Long- Term Effects of oil on ecosystems: A comparison of the Exxon Valdez and the BP oil spill The Exxon Valdez was a single hull, 987-foot super tanker built by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, out of San Diego, California. The Exxon Corporation commissioned this ship into service on December 11, 1986. After the March of 1989 collision with Bligh Reef, the vessel was towed to the shipyard in San Diego and repaired in June of 1989, more than 1,600 tons of steel needed replacing, and the cost of this repair was over $30 million dollars. The Valdez is back in use owned and operated by the Hong Kong Bloom Shipping LTD., renamed the Dong Fang Ocean, and registered out of Panama. At 12:04 A.M. on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef, Captain Joseph Hazelwood was below decks and intoxicated, the vessel was under the control of the third mate, Gregory Cousins. It was later found that in addition to the intoxicated captain, the third mate, Gregory Cousins, did not have the proper endorsement on his coast guard license to operate a ship in the pristine waters of Prince William Sound, and on top of this Exxon failed to repair the damaged radar that could have prevented the accidental grounding of the ship. At the time of impact, the Valdez was carrying 55 million gallons of crude oil and 11 million gallons of crude was spilt into one of the most delicate, and bountiful marine ecosystems on earth, Prince William Sound. This number of 11 million...
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...Introduction………………………………………………………………...1 Environmental Impact…………………………………………….…….…2 Major Spills Occurring in Water………………………….………………4 Major Spills Occurring on Land………………………………………..…6 Cleaning up a Large Oil Spill…………………………………………...…7 What Can Be Changed…………………………………………………….9 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………10 References……………………………………………………...………….12 List of Illustrations Figure 1: An Oiled Pelican in Costal Louisiana………………………….3 Figure 2: The Exxon Valdez aground on Blight Reef……………………5 Figure 3: One of the many oil wells set afire outside Kuwait City……...6 Figure 4: A Boom on the Louisiana Coast………………………………..7 Figure 4: Shoreline Modification in Coastal Louisiana………………….8 Figure 6: Ships and Drilling Rigs Surrounding the Discover Enterprise9 Introduction The world’s dependence on oil is no secret. Feeding this addiction puts immense demand on oil companies to produce oil as quickly as possible. Finding large reserves of oil is a never ending quest for oil companies. Transporting oil is a major risk of the oil production process. This crucial step has the potential for the most catastrophic damage. Oil spills can impact ecosystems in devastating ways and decimate animal life in the area affected. The damage can last decades and sometimes the effects can be irreversible. Obviously the larger oil spills cause the most damage, as they are often difficult to contain and clean up. There will always be oil spills; making the effort to eliminate the large ones should be the primary...
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...Ethics in the Workplace Case Study: BP Oil Spill On April 20, 2010 off the Gulf of Mexico, there was a blowout of the Macondo well which is owned by British Petroleum also known as BP. When the blowout took place it got immediate media attention because aspects of the event were known over the world. Within events transpiring it was discovered how limited the resources and reaction to the disaster was going to be. This paper will detail aspects of the event from symptoms of the problem, the root cause, important unresolved issues, roles of the organization’s key players and stakeholders, and explain the focus of specific ethical systems. Also discussed in this paper are relevant strategies and alternatives, the effect of globalization on the choice of preferred alternatives, the most valid alternative and resolution recommendations, and an example of a successful implementation of the solution. Symptoms of the Problem Natural disasters or any disaster of any kind is hard to manage just for the purpose that these is no real planning for the situation and there is no real way to say who is in charge when a disaster happens. Concerning the oil spill with British Petroleum (BP) symptoms for the situation was that there was a delayed response, the impact on the environment and the citizens, federal regulations were lax, and the recovery efforts were not adequate. According to Griggs (2011), OPA 90 is a federal statute that holds all the responsible parties in containment, clean-up...
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...Sam Wagner Section: Friday PWS Geography and Baseline Group #1 PWS Geography and Baseline The Exxon Valdez oil spill and the effects on Prince Williams Sound and the surrounding areas is the main focus of this first topic. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred on Good Friday in 1989. The oil spill had a major toll on the environment when it occurred. Many birds, sea otters, and fish died, and many beaches and were covered with the oil. There were some people that compared the Valdez oil spill to Chernobyl, Bhopal, and Hiroshima. Many people doubted if Prince William Sound would ever be able to recover from the oil spill. However, seven weeks after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, many beaches were still covered, but there were no more dead birds or sea otters to be found. The original thoughts of comparing the oil spill to Chernobyl or Hiroshima were way off base and were based off of an overreaction of the media and the general public. Although much of the general public overreacted, most scientists were not as dramatic when developing their predictions of what effect the oil spill would have on the environment. Even though, most scientists knew that the effects of the oil spill would not be as catastrophic as the media was portraying it, scientists experienced difficulty in providing pure “black and white” answers to the general public. Another problem that scientists faced was that much of the investigation was “litigation-sensitive.” As a result, many of the scientists’...
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...Microbes used in Oil Spill Cleanup Oil spills are very harmful to the environment and destroy coastal habitat and wildlife. Clean up and recovery from oil spills can be very difficult and costly. There are many factors to take into consideration when evaluating an oil spill such as what type of oil was spilled, water temperature, weather conditions, and the impact on the surrounding coastlines. A typical oil spill clean up approach is the controlled burn called IN-SITU Burning. This is where a high volume of oil is gathered together, using the help of ships and fire resistant booms, and then is ignited in a controlled burn. IN-SITU burning is a very fragile process because there are many factors to take into consideration and each burn has to be closely monitored by professionals. Another approach to cleaning up an oil spill is mechanical recovery. This method consists of using boats, booms, skimmers, vacuums, and separators to gather spilled oil on the surface and separate it from the water. Mechanical recovery requires cooperative weather, calm seas, and lots of man power to operate the work boats and equipment used to perform these processes. Mechanical recovery is usually the first and most common line of defense when it comes to oil spills. Dispersants are also commonly used to cope with disastrous oil spills. A dispersant is an agent used to spray on oil slicks to break them up into water soluble molecules and transfer them into the...
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...On April 20, 2010 a gas release and explosion happened on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, famously known as the BP oil spill. It was the largest oil spill in the United States history, eleven people died from the spill and injured 17 others. From the spill there was about more than about 200 million gallons of crude oil that was pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. It happened for almost a total of 87 days, the oil spill started on April 20 until July 15. From underwater cameras it showed that the BP pipe was leaking oil and gas on the ocean floor about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. After hearing about the oil spill workers from BP and many government agencies tried to control the spread of the oil to beaches and other coastal ecosystems using floating booms to contain surface oil and chemical oil dispersants to break it down underwater. [pic]Over a period of those 87 days the wellhead leaked for about 3.19 million barrels. After the release of the oil it cause some floated to the ocean's surface to form oil slicks which expanded more quickly by being pushed by winds. The spill affected coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida adding up to total about 16,000 miles. Many investigations were started from the incident, the U.S government faulted BP and the rig operator. Due to many much of the spill coming in contact with wetlands and estuaries affecting many wildlife habitats and fishing and tourism. Being that Louisiana is mostly a tourist state, they...
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...Oil Spills: Impact on the Ocean Oil wastes that enter the ocean come from many sources, some being accidental spills or leaks, and some being the results of chronic and careless habits in the use of oil and oil products. Most waste oil in the ocean consists of oily stormwater drainage from cities and farms, untreated waste disposal from factories and industrial facilities, and unregulated recreational boating. It is estimated that approximately 706 million gallons of waste oil enter the ocean every year, with over half coming from land drainage and waste disposal; for example, from the improper disposal of used motor oil. Offshore drilling and production operations and spills or leaks from ships or tankers typically contribute less...
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...BA3 Short-Term Effects of an Oil Spill on Marsh-Edge Fishes and Decapod Crustaceans Summary 1- The article is about the Barataria Bay estuary in the state of Louisiana. The article talks about the short term effects of an oil spill in the estuary. The article then goes on to explain how out of all the organisms located in the estuary fish were the most mobile and left the area when the spill occurred. Decapods and crustaceans on the other hand are far less mobile and were left behind to endure the spill. The authors then explain how overall the ecosystem recovered relatively fast. The article then dives into how louisiana handles over fifteen percent of all the oil going into the United States. The article goes further and explains that Louisiana is home to twenty six percent of the united states fisheries which is dominated mostly by crustaceans. The authors then explain that since the oil and fisherie industries operate in the same space it damages the organisms that the fisherie thrives off of. In this particular passage the author explains that the harm is done when these organisms either get smothered in the oil or accidentally ingest it. This source is...
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...Deepwater Oil Spills Deepwater oil drilling has been an issue that continually bothers a great deal of people. Environmentalists are truly concerned with the effects that oil spills cause to the environment and species that live within the seas. There have been many spills throughout the years, but especially since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf Coast in 2010 that has gotten many concerned. Not only was the event in the news continually, but it was considered to be one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States history. Previously, the Exxon Valdez Oil spill was the worst catastrophic event regarding oil drilling, and I have paid much attention to that over the years, boycotting Exxon and recently learning that some of the original defendants in the lawsuit had died, waiting for a resolution of that incident over 20 years ago. The recent oil spill has been catastrophic, it killed eleven people due to the explosion, but the damage to many of the resident’s lives were unbelievable. In this paper, I will discuss the oil spills within the past few years, especially the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the environmental effects to the species of the sea, and the need for continual vigilance regarding this industry and whether or not it should even exist in this country. In 2011, there were four incidents of oil spills including off the coast of Brazil. In one incident, there was an oil leak, roughly 350 square miles, slowly making its way down the...
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...English 1301, 9:05 MW P. Schmidt, HLN Paper# 3 Research Paper October 22, 2014 After the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico in 2010, a research by Douglas. B. Inkley shows that scientists are still assessing the effects of the estimated 170 million gallons of oil that flooded into the Gulf after the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The effects of oil spills can have wide ranging impacts that are often portrayed by the media as long lasting environmental disasters. Such perceptions are understandable as they are often fuelled by distressing images of oiled animals and other wildlife. More than 8,000 birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals were found injured or dead in the six months after the spill. In the months following the Gulf oil disaster, wildlife managers, rescue crews, scientists and researchers saw many immediate impacts of the oil impacting wildlife. Though oil is no longer readily visible on the surface, it isn’t gone. Scientists have found significant amounts on the Gulf floor, and the oil that has already washed into wetlands and beaches will likely persist for years. We likely will not see the full extent of impacts for many years, which makes creating and implementing successful restoration plans a serious challenge. Here is a list of some animals that were affected by the oil spill: * Sick Dolphins - As part of the official investigation into impacts of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a team of scientists did comprehensive physicals on dolphins in...
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...In the short writing “Oil and Ethics: Adrift by Troubled Water” written by Richard Nelson, he focuses on one main oil spill to demonstrate his argument. The Exxon Valdez oil spill, or commonly referred to as the Prince William Sound oil spill is the second largest oil disaster on American territory. On March 24, 1989 the ship tried to avoid hitting some icebergs that had supposedly been in the area. It crashed while trying to avoid the icebergs and the ship crashed allowing eleven million gallons of oil to spill into the ocean. As stated by Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council this oil spread over 1,300 miles, killing thousands of animals, damaging shoreline, and ultimately damaging the entire environment. Over 26 years later the effects of the oil spill are still present. Many of the animal species are still recovering from this spill and oil can still be found both in the water and on the beaches. This wasn’t the first oil spill in the United States, nor was it the last one to occur, so one might ask who is responsible? The arguments still continue to this day of who is really responsible, accusing and forcing blame upon a...
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...scale. The Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not the first, and is quickly surpassing the widely remembered Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 in infamy and tragedy. Both had and will have immediate and long term effects on the natural ecosystems and surrounding human population. The 1989 oil spill has been determined to be caused by negligence, mainly its crew at the helm. Similarly, negligence on a corporate level led to the malfunctioning equipment on the BP oil platform resulting in multiple indictments and fines totaling $13.7 billion. Exxon was ordered to pay only $1.9 billion (adjusted for inflation). The drastic differences in fines are clearly evident and can be explained with the numbers behind the events. Exxon Valdez released approximately 11 million gallons of oil, equivalent to about 17 Olympic size swimming pools, which traveled hundreds of miles along the shores in the Gulf of Alaska. This is in comparison to the astounding 200 million gallons released in the Gulf of Mexico over an 87 day period by the offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon. BP was unable to successfully stop this steady leak during this time, allowing it to spread to the surrounding 16,000 miles of shoreline, as well as settling into a 1,235 square mile “bathtub ring” on the ocean floor. The initial effects of each on the environment were seen within months to a few years, including tens of thousands of oceans birds washing ashore in Alaska. The BP spill may result in the local dolphin...
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...A Review of Literature Related to Oil Spill Dispersants 1997-2008 for Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council (PWSRCAC) Anchorage, Alaska by Merv Fingas Spill Science Edmonton, Alberta PWSRCAC Contract Number - 955.08.03 Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this PWSRCAC-commissioned report are not necessarily those of PWSRCAC September, 2008 ii Abstract This report is a review of the literature on oil spill dispersants published from 1997 to August, 2008. The report identifies and focusses on recent advances in dispersant effectiveness, toxicity, and biodegradation. Other topics such as application, use, behaviour and fate are also covered. The prime motivation for using dispersants is to reduce the impact of oil on shorelines, thus the application must be successful and effectiveness high. As some oil would come ashore, discussion remains on what effectiveness is required to significantly reduce the shoreline impact. A major issue is the actual effectiveness during spills so that these values can be used in estimates for the future. The second motivation for using dispersants is to reduce the impact on birds and mammals on the water surface. The benefits of using dispersants to reduce impacts on wildlife still remain unknown. The third motivation for using dispersants is to promote the biodegradation of oil in the water column. The effect of dispersants on biodegradation is still a matter of dispute. Some papers state that dispersants inhibit...
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...CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Oil spill is the leakage or discharge of petroleum onto the surface of inland or coastal water. It assumes disastrous dimension when an uncontrollable well blows out or pipeline ruptures. On water surface, spreading takes place immediately, which is very harmful to various types of aquatic lives as it prevents sufficient amount of sunlight from penetrating and also reduces the land-dissolving capacity in the water. The magnitude of crude oil pollution and damage occasioned by multi-national oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is incredible (Urhobo Historical Society, 2003). It is noteworthy that the devastating consequences of the crude oil spill in the region with its eventual hazards on both aerial and terrestrial environments is tantamount to an irreversible chain effect on both the biodiversity and human safety. Abbot (2007) in her article entitled “Think Jamaica is Bad? Try Nigeria” notes that the discovery of oil has been an ecological disaster for the Niger Delta where the oil is extracted. Oil and natural resources of a country are often considered to be national assets. Oil penetrates into the structure of the plumage of birds and the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability, and making them more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water. Animals that rely on scent to find their babies or mothers fade away due to the strong scent of the oil....
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...The Gulf oil spill is recognized as the worst disaster in U.S. history.(Worse than not graduating high school) Within days of the April 20, 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people, underwater cameras revealed the BP pipe was leaking oil and gas on the ocean floor about 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. By the time the well was capped on July 15, 2010 (87 days later), an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf. The well was located over 5,000 feet beneath the water’s surface in the vast frontier of the deep sea—a permanently dark environment, marked by constantly cold temperatures just above freezing and extremely high pressures. Scientists divide the ocean into at least three zones, and the deep ocean accounts for about three-quarters of Earth’s total ocean volume. Immediately after the explosion, workers from BP and Transocean (owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig), and many government agencies tried to control the spread of the oil to beaches and other coastal ecosystems using floating booms to contain surface oil and chemical oil dispersants to break it down underwater. Additionally, numerous scientists and researchers descended upon the Gulf region to gather data. Researchers are still trying to understand the spill and its impact on marine life, the Gulf coast, and human communities. Over the course of 87 days, the damaged Macondo wellhead, located around 5,000 feet beneath the ocean's...
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