Green, J., and Trett, M.W. (1989). The Fate and Effects of Oil in Freshwater. New York, NY: Elsevier Applied Science.…
Before it was capped, the well 5000 feet (1500 meters) below the sea surface leaked at least 200 million gallons of oil. (Some estimates are far larger.) One tactic BP used was to spray hundreds of thousands of gallons of DISPERSANTS into the gushing clouds of oil and onto surface of the ocean. Dispersants are a mixture of organic solvents and detergents which enable the oil to mix into the water. While this largely succeeded in getting the oil “out of sight, out of mind” by diluting it into a much larger volume of water below the surface, and helped increase of speed of chemical and bacterial breakdown of the oil somewhat, much of the oil is still there, just spread out more, and the dispersants themselves are also quite toxic. The full environmental damage of this spill and its “cleanup” will take years to…
Crude oil on its own is not useful but the hydrocarbons it contains on their own are useful and so they need to be separated. They are separated by a process called fractional distillation and this happens in a fractionating column…
The Gulf Oil Spill took place in the spring of 2010 and is known as one of the most devastating environmental disasters in American history. The Gulf Oil Spill took place on the Deepwater Horizon/BP MC252 drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico which had an explosion and killed 11 workers and this caused the drilling platform to sink. The explosion caused oil to leak into the Gulf of Mexico and nearly 134 million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf. Oil traveled all the way to the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The marine life was severely depleted; the oil killed marine life, birds, and other animals who depend on the Gulf. This environmental disaster showed some major downsides to globalization, which is the…
Discuss techniques used to clean oil spills. Why is it important to begin the cleanup immediately?…
There are several processes and techniques on how to remove the oil or extract it. Removing the oil sands from the ground is easy. They are dug out of the ground with huge shovels and dumped in heavy trucks that take them to the processing plant. Here the oil sands are crushed then hot water is added to them which creates a slurry. This slurry now enters a seperating machine. The sands sinks to the bottom and bitumen stays at the top, it is then mixed with solvent and spun. Finally, it can be processed into oil. There is another technique for removing oil that is better for the environment and increases production. It is called the “in situ” technique. This involves injecting steam or solvent into the machine, which seperates the oil from the sand (oil is brought up to surface).One more way of removing oil is a process called upgrading. Upgrading is done in two ways: The first way involves a process called “coking”, which removes carbon, while the second way called hydro-processing adds hydrogen.…
In this case, one of the main clean up procedures used was the application of a chemical dispersant. The chemical dispersant does not actually remove the oil, it breaks it down into small droplets. Another way to remove the oil from the water is by using skimmers. This is a process in which a machine siphons the oil off the top of the water. It is a difficult process because the longer the oil sits on the water the more the viscosity changes. Eventually the oil becomes too thin to siphon off the top and the skimmer takes on more water than…
What does the safety legislation implemented after the Exxon Valdez oil spill say about the government’s changing role in protecting against environmental hazards and how have the laws since then become stricter?…
This presentation had a deep impact on me because I had been living in Gulf Breeze, Florida at the time of the spill. Gulf Breeze is located 15 miles West of Pensacola and the reefs and beaches were severely impacted by it. Not only did the spill impact the environment but also the tourism which that city needed to thrive; in turn businesses closed and restaurants plundered. When I looked outside my bedroom window at the ocean, instead of seeing the bright blue colored ocean waves, I instead looked out at green murky foam covered waves and algae blooms. The sand got covered in black oil and impacted the sea birds that used the splashing waves to gather small fish and organisms. So, when I listened to this…
The Oil Spill, due to the mismanaged oil drilling by British Petroleum (BP), in the Gulf of Mexico, has turned into one of the worst environmental disasters to happen to an ocean ecosystem of all time. Although many people only notice the effects on the hydrosphere, which include the oil going almost a mile deep under the sea, destroying the sediment and rock on the ocean floor, as well as disrupting coastal patterns, many have not realized the drastic effects on the biosphere because of this catastrophic event. The BP oil spill is viewed as the largest decimation of ocean wild life known to man, as well as also killing human lives in the process. Entire ecosystems have been affected in the process, harming animals like whales, dolphins, fish species, pelicans, seagulls, sea turtles, etc., several of which are already endangered. This destruction of wildlife has also lead to a slowdown in many fishing industries, further affecting human life, and causing severe poverty for those who rely on such business to survive. Even if some of the animals did survive, the trauma faced from this experience will lead to reproductive problems, or most likely, death. Even though life is returning back to the Gulf, the damage done can never be replaced, and the area will never be the same.…
Deep sea oil drilling is very hazardous to our environment. If these places are exploited, and the oil burnt, we will be on track for a six degree rise in global average temperatures. Two degrees is generally accepted by scientists and governments as the tipping point of dangerous climate change. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill was terrible and if something went wrong in New Zealand then it would go very wrong. the depth they want to drill in is almost twice the depth of the Gulf of Mexico. For an oil spill to be fixed in the Gulf of Mexico it took a matter of days whereas at nearly twice the depth this would take significantly longer. Tourism is a very large factor in the New Zealand economy. If an oil spill where to occur than at this depth…
The Gulf of Mexico along the Louisiana coast has experienced countless oil spills but unlike those BP’s oil spewed directly from the bottom of the ocean. It is difficult to accurately determine the complete extent of the damage caused by the oil spill because data on the condition of the environment in that area before the disaster is lacking. Even now the effect on organisms such as those in deep-water marine communities is hard to determine. But one thing is certain; the oil spill impacted every level of the complex environment that is the Gulf of Mexico.…
The recent major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, from BP’s Deepwater Horizon, has brought the use and effectiveness of bioremediation back into the news. Recruiting bacteria and other microbes to break down synthetic waste is an immensely appealing idea. Putting microorganisms to work in this manner is the crux of bioremediation (Alcamo, Weeks, 2008). The work to clean up the Horizon spill actually started in the 1800’s when night-soil men would go from house to house and collects sewage; the sewage would then be taken to fields, spread out, and broken down by bacteria. This was the beginning of bioremediation. In the case of oil spills though, modern handling and removal made huge strides with lessons learned from…
In this paper am going to examine the factors contributing to oil spills, and their effects on marine and terrestrial ecosystems. This addition of phytoplankton leads to depletion of oxygen levels in water, making it hard for survival of animal and plant population in the water. These oil spills do not only affect the marine system but also the chronic urban contamination and the economic loss. The oil spill has total effect on marine life despite the distance from the oil spill. The closer the oil spill is to the shoreline, the more damage it causes. The effects are also felt toward the offshore and the coastal environment.…
The availability of liquid petroleum in the form of crude oil and its refined products is a key driver in modern society, but its widespread use results in accidental and intentional releases resulting to oil spills. These oil spills have created large damages, casualties and losses on both marine and land resources. In addition, oil spills generally take about two to three years to clean…