Gulf Spill
Gulf Spill, 1991
Shelbi Atwell-perreault
When you think of an oil spill, do you think of a small area having too much oil? Do you think of a gas station closing? How about 101 miles by 42 miles and was 5 inches thick in some areas of a 336 million gallon spill? Seems crazy that that could even happen. There has to be some way to prevent that or even stop it right away if it does happen, right? Well, in 1991, during the Gulf war, exactly that happened. So, they had to figure out how to stop it before it did horrible damage to the environment.
How did it happen, you ask? Well, in 1991, Iraqi forces were retreating from Kuwait during the first Gulf War. They ended up opening the valves of oil wells and pipelines in an effort to slow American troops. It resulted in one of the worst oil spills in history. 240 million gallons flooded the Persian Gulf. Research shows that the spill resulted in an area filled of about the size of the island of Hawaii.
The effects it had on the environment was thankfully not as long-term as they thought it would be. The New York Times reported that the countries and the U.S. Involved found that the spill did “little long-term damage”. About half of the oil evaporated, some was recovered, and the rest washed up on shore, mostly in Saudi Arabia. However, some researchers say that this is incorrect. There are marshlands and mud tidal flats that still contain quite a bit of oil and they say full recovery is likely to take decades.
For the clean-up: Forces were able to close up some of the pipelines with smart bombs, however most of it had to be done after the war. When they did, 25 miles of booms and 21 skimmers were put in the gulf to try and help protect the waters. Vacuum trucks came and took about 58.8 million gallons from the gulf. It took a lot of time to try to get up what they could, but even that wasn’t enough. Some areas, like the rocky shores and mangroves are completely recovered from the spill, and are thriving to this day.
Shelbi Atwell-perreault
When you think of an oil spill, do you think of a small area having too much oil? Do you think of a gas station closing? How about 101 miles by 42 miles and was 5 inches thick in some areas of a 336 million gallon spill? Seems crazy that that could even happen. There has to be some way to prevent that or even stop it right away if it does happen, right? Well, in 1991, during the Gulf war, exactly that happened. So, they had to figure out how to stop it before it did horrible damage to the environment.
How did it happen, you ask? Well, in 1991, Iraqi forces were retreating from Kuwait during the first Gulf War. They ended up opening the valves of oil wells and pipelines in an effort to slow American troops. It resulted in one of the worst oil spills in history. 240 million gallons flooded the Persian Gulf. Research shows that the spill resulted in an area filled of about the size of the island of Hawaii.
The effects it had on the environment was thankfully not as long-term as they thought it would be. The New York Times reported that the countries and the U.S. Involved found that the spill did “little long-term damage”. About half of the oil evaporated, some was recovered, and the rest washed up on shore, mostly in Saudi Arabia. However, some researchers say that this is incorrect. There are marshlands and mud tidal flats that still contain quite a bit of oil and they say full recovery is likely to take decades.
For the clean-up: Forces were able to close up some of the pipelines with smart bombs, however most of it had to be done after the war. When they did, 25 miles of booms and 21 skimmers were put in the gulf to try and help protect the waters. Vacuum trucks came and took about 58.8 million gallons from the gulf. It took a lot of time to try to get up what they could, but even that wasn’t enough. Some areas, like the rocky shores and mangroves are completely recovered from the spill, and are thriving to this day.