A container ship ran into a piling on the bay bridge and spilled its contents into the water of San Fran Bay on Wednesday. 16 beaches are closed and 60,000 gallons of oil are spreading into the bay. The report said that the oil was killing birds and causing other environmental problems. Make sure to watch the news clip on the first resource link. This doesn't seem to be the first oil spill in the bay. Take a look at the 2nd article. And, it certainly isn't the worst oil spill in our history. One of the worst in the U.S. was the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. A summary of the accident can be seen in the video on the right. You can also take an extensive look at the accident at the links below.
Questions:
1. Identify and briefly discuss 2 other large oil spills (hint: USINSK, EKOFISK) that have happened in the world.
2. How is an oil spilled cleaned up?
3. Discuss 2 long-term environmental problems that result from a large-scale oil spill?
4. Discuss one legislative and one technological fix for preventing oil spills in the future.
5. In lite of the ideas of reduce, reuse, recycle and renew, discuss how we could reduce our dependency on oil.
Resources:
Bay Oil Spill -
Bay Oil Spill -
http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=34886
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7408041
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPz4y-5G-o
Exxon Valdez Spill -http://www.loe.org/series/exxon/exxon.htm
9 comments:
In 1984 1.5 million gallons of oil spilled outside of the Golden Gate Bridge when an explosion damages a tanker ship. Another major oil spill was back in 1937 when 2.7 million gallons spilled when an oil tanker collided with a passenger ship.
There are three main methods for cleaning up oil spills. One is they can burn it. This is effective for when they need to burn a bunch of oil right off the surface but this is bad for everything living underneath the oil. A second method would be skimming it off. Using a floating boom they can just sweep the oil all into a big net thing that they can carry it out somewhere else. A final method that they use is where they either break the oil up or just wash it out of the water like with detergent or something.
One long term effect is that the oil poisons the water making it difficult for organisms to live in the water therefore the biodiversity decreases which damages the fishing industries in that area. Another long term effect is that the oil gets into sea otters coat and it makes insulating themselves much more difficult resulting in hypothermia.
The Oil Pollution Act in August of 1990 makes funding for oil spills clean up much more effective. There is now a place where the money is coming from and there is a plan on how to spread out the funds evenly to help clean these up. Now these large tankers are required to undergo inspections that check for weak spots in the tank where a spill could occur.
By not using plastic so much then they stop making as much plastic which requires large amounts of oil use in order for it to be produced. Another way is by using more fuel efficient cars or cars that have alternate fuel sources other than oil.
The Gulf War oil spill is the largest recorded oil spill. It happened in the Persian Gulf on January 23, 1991, spilling almost 1,500,000 tons of crude oil. Another large oil spill was at the Ixtoc I oil well in the Gulf of Mexico from June 3, 1979 to march 23, 1980, spilling nearly 480,000 tons of crude oil
Oil spills can be cleaned up with booms and skimmers. The booms are floating barriers that contain the oil so that the skimming boats can vacuum the oil into a container. Chemical dispersants are used to break down the oil and make it less harmful to wildlife. Once a spill reaches the shore, it is much harder to clean up. High pressured water hoses and trucks with vacuums are used to wash off rocks and diluted detergent solutions are used to clean off wildlife such as birds and otters.
Large-scale oil spills effect the environment in various negative ways. The oil on the surface of the water blocks the sun from reaching the euphotic layer. Therefore, the phytoplankton cannot perform photosynthesis and begin to die out. The zooplankton that eat the phytoplankton therefore die out as well. Through the trophic levels, every animal suffers, including fish such as salmon and tuna. Consequently, the fishermen that depend on the fish they catch as their income suffer as well. Also, mammals and birds are directly affected by the oil that reduces their coat’s natural insulation, causing them to not be as protected by the cold. This leads to possible hypothermia in the winter time. Birds under-feathers are also disrupted which affects their flight ability. These animals try to preen and clean themselves, causing them to ingest the oil which leads to kidney failure.
The Oil Pollution Act was initiated in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez incident to improve “the nations ability to prevent and respond to oil spills by establishing provisions that expand the federal government’s ability” as well as providing money to be able to properly respond to future oil spills. Also, the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund was created to provide up to $1 billion per oil spill. Technologically, oil spills can be prevented by inventing safer, sturdier, and more reliable ship for transporting the oil.
We could reduce our dependency on oil by using hybrid cars or finding alternate fuel sources such as wheat, corn, or ethanol. Also, we could use less plastic for shipping and packaging items.
1) Two other major oil spills happened in November 2002 off the coast of Spain when the Prestige carrying 20 million gallons (70,000 metric tons) of fuel oil broke up. The other spill happened in January 1993 when the tanker Braer hit rocks near the coast of the Shetland Islands and spilled its cargo of 85,000 tonnes of crude oil.
2) To clean up an oil spill workers place floating booms in the water to keep the oil from spreading, then the come through with a special vacuum which sucks up the oil from the surface, then oil eating chemicals such as Accepta 3538 are added to quickly break down the oil molecule. If oil reaches the shore then workers blast it off the beach with high powered hoses and then pick it up by hand. If the situation gets desperate the burning of the oil is the final method.
3) Oil effects the environment for a longtime after the spill because oil takes a very long time to decompose in water. The oil that escapes cleanup by sinking can be ingested by fish but more importantly damage their unprotected eggs for years to come causing death and deformations. Also oil drastically affects waterfowl. If a bird gets oil in its feathers the bird will try to preen it off and by doing so will digest it. If that doesn't kill the bird its offspring could be deformed, and also the oil mats down the birds feathers preventing them from keeping the bird warm and exposes it to risks of hypothermia.
4) One technological fix that could prevent oil spills in the future is requiring oil tankers to have a double hull, so if they run aground there is a chance that the oil doesn’t spill. One legislative fix is requiring oil companies to pass quarterly systems safety checks on all of their equipment for oil spill clean up, so a big company never gets away with what Exxon did in the early nineties.
5) We could reduce our dependency on oil by trapping the methane that is produced from land fills and using it to power cars or even smaller things such as generators.
1. Two major oil spills that have occurred in our world over the past few years are the Gulf War Oil Spill and the lxtoc I oil well. The Gulf War Oil is the largest recorded oil spill in history. It is said that Iraq released 460 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean. This, of course, affected the war that was going on at the time in the Middle East between Iraq and the U.S. / Kuwait (Gulf War). The location of this oil spill is in the Persian Gulf on January 23, 1991. The Ixtoc I oil well was a major spill that released 480,000 tons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The surface of the Gulf of Mexico turned into mousse, which was definitely not good for the environment.
2. There are several different methods to clean up an oil spill. The equipment used to clean up oil spills are absorbent booms, containment booms, skimmers, and snares. Skimmers are machines that go over the surface of the water separating liquids that are floating on another liquid. In this case, it would separate the oil from the water. Some other methods that are used are burning the top of the water destroying the oil. In addition, dredging is another process used to clean up oil spills. This is putting detergents inside of the water that cleans up the water. Surprisingly, doing nothing also works because trying to clean it up can make matters worse. Sometimes it is just easier to let the oil break down and evaporate.
3) 2 long term environmental problems that occur from large oil spills are the change in the way otter/birds live as well as the way the oil blocks the sun from the water. Otters are affected directly because the oil seeps into their fur. Otters in the winter time and when it grows cold need to puff up their fur in order to stay warm. However, when the oil seeps in, they cannot easily perform that function. Therefore, some otters eventually die because of hypothermia. Birds are affected as well because when the oil seeps into their feathers, it hinders their flying ability especially when it is cold. This then prevents them from getting the right food and protection, which eventually kills them. They can also receive kidney damage because of their intake of the oil. A huge oil spill can also cover all rocks and smaller pools which some get nutrients from. Also, it eliminates light from getting to the creatures and algae towards the bottom. When this happens, the entire food chain falls apart because the algae or phytoplankton cannot prosper.
4)One legislative act set forth by a major company to prevent oil spills from occurring in the future is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. It was issued by Exxon after their major incident in Alaska. In this act, the nation had improved their power to stop and quickly react to the spills if they occurred by setting “provisions that expand the federal government’s ability” (http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/opaover.htm). One technological fix that was set forth was by the same group. The OPA made a group named the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. This gave billions of dollars to each oil spill that occurred, for example the Exxon Valdez Incident.
5)We could reduce our dependency by using alternative fuel methods to solve the fossil fuel problem we currently have. We can use electricity, hybrid, or even ethanol. The only problem with ethanol is that it takes just as much energy and fossil fuels to make it so it really is not worth it. This would not only benefit our waters from staying cleaner, but it would also improve our environment that we live in today (air pollution).
In 1994, news broke out of a huge oil spill near Usinsk. As much as one hundred thousand tons of oil leaked from a pipeline, polluting the tundra over a large area and threatened the ecosystem of the Pechora river basin. In April 1977 on the North Sea a blowout of well in the Ekofisk oil field leaked 81 million gallons of oil.
The key methods for cleaning up oil spills are; booms, floating barriers placed around the oil or around whatever is leaking the oil. Booms contain the oil so skimmers can collect it. The skimmers are boats, vacuum machines, and oil-absorbent plastic ropes that skim spilled oil from the water's surface after booms have corralled it. The skimmer collects oil into a container so it can be removed. Then chemical dispersants, materials that break down the oil into its chemical constituents, are added to the oil. In-situ burning, igniting freshly spilled oil while it's still floating on the water, is also an option.
Booms, skimmers, and chemical dispersants are perhaps the most frequently used methods to clean up ocean oil spills. If the spilled oil reaches shore, experts use another set of cleaning methods. Low or high-pressure water hoses can wash oil off beaches, as can vacuum trucks. Sorbents, sponge-like materials, absorb oil, and shovels and road equipment can come in handy to remove oily sand and gravel from a beach. Animals must be washed by hand using a diluted solution of dishwashing liquid, though even careful cleaning will not save all oiled birds.
The large-scale oil spills can permanently hinder the population growth, such as the Exxon Valdez limiting the growth in pink salmon populations, and it can eliminate light from getting to the plants and algae towards the bottom, preventing photosynthesis. When this happens, there is no energy being passed through the food chain, so falls apart.
Senate Bill 6244 directs the Department of Ecology to establish rules for oil spill preparedness and prevention, particularly for when the oil is being transferred. Some naval experts say that requiring the all oil tankers to have double hulls will significantly decrease the amount of oil that leaks out.
We could use an alternate fuel source such as cooking oil to power our cars. Also if we could build more naturally powered generators, such as turbines and windmills, then we would need less generators that ran on fossil fuels.
1. Identify and briefly discuss 2 other large oil spills (hint: USINSK, EKOFISK) that have happened in the world.
The Usinsk oil spill happened in Russia. There was a pipeline just south of the Arctic Circle and it had been leaking ever since February 1994. On October 1st, the pipeline collapsed because of the snow and the pipes expanding. 102,000 tons of oil poured all over the land and it reached the Kolva River. There was also an oil spill in the Gulf, and it was the worst oil spill in history. It was during the Gulf War in 1991. It hurt lots of the land and the wildlife around the gulf and the volume spilled was from 42-462 million gallons.
2. How is an oil spilled cleaned up?
An oil spill can be cleaned up using booms and skimmers. The booms contain oil so the skimmers can take all of the oil and put it into a container. The skimmers are boats used specifically for this reason.
3. Discuss 2 long-term environmental problems that result from a large-scale oil spill?
There are many long-term environmental problems that result from oil spills. One is the wild life. If oil gets into the water, many of the animals will be killed. The water is not clean to drink, and also all of the fish in the water. Also if birds around the area get oil on their feathers, then they will clean it off using their mouths. Therefore, the oil gets into the birds digestive system and the birds die or make their offspring sick.
4. Discuss one legislative and one technological fix for preventing oil spills in the future.
One legislative fix that could prevent these oil spills is to make sure that each oil company has a check every few months to make sure that the tanks are safe and holding in the oil correctly. A technological fix is to make sure that there is more money funded to keep the tanks and machines from leaking into the wildlife around it.
5. In lite of the ideas of reduce, reuse, recycle and renew, discuss how we could reduce our dependency on oil.
We could reduce our dependence on oil by using electric cars. Then, people will be more agreeable using the electric cars because they still get to drive, but they don’t have to use more gas. Also using the alternative vegetable oil from restaurants to fuel cars.
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