Causes- Oil Spills

Oil spills, unfortunately, do not get much media attention, with an exception to the BP oil spill of 2010. Public awareness is very minimal on this subject; just in May of this year, an oil spill occurred in North Dakota, which very few people know about. Oil spills are usually caused by carelessness and laziness. Large scale oil spills are mostly due to human error, where the crew on the ships make a severe mistake. However, although many boaters do not think in this manner, every time somebody dumps even the tiniest amount of oil into an ocean, lake, or river, fishes and other marine species are affected. Every little ounce counts, and it all adds up.

Grapic of Causes- Oil Spills

This is a pictorial representation (or a pie graph) of the major causes of oil spills. Fires and explosions on ships is the main reason why these spills occur.

Research Document- Oil Spills

Stewart, Anne (2009) World Oil Pollution: Causes, Prevention and Clean- Up. Retrieved from: http://oceanlink.island.net/oceanmatters/oil%20pollution.html

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2008) What’s the Story on Oil Spills? Retrieved from: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/kids/spills.html

·      US uses 700 million gallons of oil/day

·      Exxon Valdez oil spill was largest in US… but only 2% of what US uses in a day.

·      Spills are caused by people making mistakes, equipment failure, natural disasters, sabotage/ acts of violence

·      Oil usually floats on the surface and is a danger to marine birds and mammals.  The oil can be ingested and coat their feathers.

·      Spill response: Booms (floating barriers) skimmers (sucks up oil from surface) Sorbents (giant sponges), Chemical dispersants, burning off

·      USCG and EPA reasonable for clean ups

NOAA (2010) Oil Spills Retrieved from: http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/oilspills.htm

·       Oil spills are most often common at: continental shelf, groundings/drilling, runoff, transportation,

·       No two spills are the same

·       Translated to different clean up plans for each

·       Location, oil type, weather are key factors

·       Most common clean up:

o   1. Leave the oil alone so that it breaks down by natural means.
2. Contain the spill with booms and collect it from the water surface using skimmer equipment.
3. Use dispersants to break up the oil and speed its natural biodegradation.
4. Introduce biological agents to the spill to hasten biodegradation.

·       Animals suffer from toxic chemicals in oil

·       Oil damages coastal habitats

·       Can ruin fishing markets

NOAA (2011) Office of Response and restoration- Coastal Issues Retrieved from: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/audience_catalog.php?RECORD_KEY%28audience_chosen%29=audience_id&audience_id%28audience_chosen%29=2

·       1989 Exxon Valdez Spill

·       Many lessons learned

·       quick response is critical

·       US made stricter laws regulating tankers

·       Lead to laws mandating double hull an all new tankers

Daniel, Tharani, Kathy (2010) Accidents and Operations Retrieved from: http://library.thinkquest.org/C004218/OilCauses.htm

·      There are two main causes of spills: accidents and operations.

·      Accidents: 1/5 have an oil loss of over 700 tones.

·      Types of accidents:

·       collisions: a common accident with 475 occurring

·       hull failures: these accidents have occurred the most, with 671 hull failures

·       fires and explosions: this is the most uncommon type of accident, only occurring 154 times

·       Groundings: a common accident with 518 occurring, and the greatest number of oil losses over 700 tones

·                Operations: Most oil losses occur when ships are carrying out routine operations at ports or oil terminals, but the majority of such spills are small, with 93% of them producing a spillage of less than 7 tones.

·                Types of operations spills:

• loading/discharging: commonest cause of oil spillages (either during routine operations or resulting from accidents), with 3070 occurring
• bunkering: the least common operational oil loss with only 566 occurring

Solutions Document- Oil Spills

The ideal solution to avoiding oil spills would be to stop drilling and transporting oil across oceans completely. Unfortunately, this is inconceivable in modern society, so other solutions must come in to play. Even though no one wants to give up more money, spending on safety features would be nothing but beneficial. Also, better employee training would be helpful as well. The crew on oil rigs should be better prepared for emergency situations so huge disasters can be avoided. In addition, the public should be more aware of not only the effects oil spills have on marine animals, but also the occurrence of spills themselves. Finally, if oil companies were made more liable for oil spills, they would be much more careful and pay more attention to detail. Since they would be held responsible, companies would drill with more care.

Solution Graphic- Oil Spills

The above graphic shows various solutions the team came up with to solve the oil spill dilemma. The ideal solution is reflected by the cross section of the oil tanker. It means that the major way to avoid oil spills is to stop transporting oil. Unfortunately, society is too dependent on this non renewable resource so other solutions include emergency preparation, and more publicized information to aware the public to create a movement to preventing more in the future.