Oil Spill

An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the

environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of
pollution. The term is usually applied to marine oil spills, where oil is released
into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills
may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling
rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such
as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships
such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.
Spilt 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. Cleanup and
recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors,
including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting
evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and beaches
involved.
[1]
Spills may take weeks, months or even years to clean up.
[2]






Largest oil spills[edit]
Main article: List of oil spills
Crude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged
natural ecosystems in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galapagos
Islands, France and many other places. The quantity of oil spilled during
accidents has ranged from a few hundred tons to several hundred thousand
tons (e.g., Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Atlantic Empress, Amoco Cadiz) but
is a limited barometer of damage or impact. Smaller spills have already
proven to have a great impact on ecosystems, such as the Exxon Valdez oil
spill because of the remoteness of the site or the difficulty of an emergency
environmental response.
Human impact[edit]
An oil spill represents an immediate fire hazard. The Kuwaiti oil
fires produced air pollution that caused respiratory distress. The Deepwater
Horizon explosion killed eleven oil rig workers. The fire resulting from
the Lac-Mgantic derailment killed 47 and destroyed half of the town's centre.
Spilled oil can also contaminate drinking water supplies. For example, in 2013
two different oil spills contaminated water supplies for 300,000
in Miri, Malaysia;
[26]
80,000 people in Coca, Ecuador,.
[27]
In 2000, springs
were contaminated by an oil spill in Clark County, Kentucky.
[28]

Contamination can have an economic impact on tourism and marine resource
extraction industries. For example, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impacted
beach tourism and fishing along the Gulf Coast, and the responsible parties
were required to compensate economic victims.

Environmental effects[edit]
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. This causes a baby to be rejected and abandoned,
leaving the babies to starve and eventually die. Oil can impair a bird's ability
to fly, preventing it from foraging or escaping from predators. As they preen,
birds may ingest the oil coating their feathers, irritating the digestive tract,
altering liver function, and causing kidney damage. Together with their
diminished foraging capacity, this can rapidly result
in dehydration and metabolic imbalance. Some birds exposed to petroleum
also experience changes in their hormonal balance, including changes in
their luteinizing protein.
[29]
The majority of birds affected by oil spills die
without human intervention.
[30][31]
Some studies have suggested that less than
one percent of oil-soaked birds survive, even after cleaning,
[32]
although the
survival rate can also exceed ninety percent, as in the case of the Treasure oil
spill.
[33]

Heavily furred marine mammals exposed to oil spills are affected in similar
ways. Oil coats the fur of sea otters and seals, reducing its insulating effect,
and leading to fluctuations in body temperature and hypothermia. Oil can also
blind an animal, leaving it defenseless. The ingestion of oil causes
dehydration and impairs the digestive process. Animals can be poisoned, and
may die from oil entering the lungs or liver.


Cleanup and recovery[edit]
Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many
factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water
(affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and
beaches involved.
[1]

Methods for cleaning up include:
[34]

Bioremediation: use of microorganisms
[35]
or biological agents
[36]
to break
down or remove oil; such as the bacteria Alcanivorax.
[37]

Bioremediation Accelerator: Oleophilic, hydrophobic chemical, containing
no bacteria, which chemically and physically bonds to both soluble and
insoluble hydrocarbons. The bioremediation accelerator acts as a herding
agent in water and on the surface, floating molecules to the surface of the
water, including solubles such as phenols and BTEX, forming gel-like
agglomerations. Undetectable levels of hydrocarbons can be obtained in
produced water and manageable water columns. By overspraying sheen
with bioremediation accelerator, sheen is eliminated within minutes.
Whether applied on land or on water, the nutrient-rich emulsion creates a
bloom of local, indigenous, pre-existing, hydrocarbon-consuming bacteria.
Those specific bacteria break down the hydrocarbons into water and carbon
dioxide, with EPA tests showing 98% of alkanes biodegraded in 28 days;
and aromatics being biodegraded 200 times faster than in nature they also
sometimes use the hydrofireboom to clean the oil up by taking it away
from most of the oil and burning it.
[38]

Controlled burning can effectively reduce the amount of oil in water, if
done properly.
[39]
But it can only be done in low wind,
[citation needed]
and can
cause air pollution.
[40]

Dispersants can be used to dissipate oil slicks.
[41]
A dispersant is either a
non-surface active polymer or a surface-active substance added to
a suspension, usually a colloid, to improve the separation of particles and
to prevent settling or clumping. They may rapidly disperse large amounts
of certain oil types from the sea surfaceby transferring it into the water
column. They will cause the oil slick to break up and form water-
soluble micelles that are rapidly diluted. The oil is then effectively spread
throughout a larger volume of water than the surface from where the oil
was dispersed. They can also delay the formation of persistent oil-in-water
emulsions. However, laboratory experiments showed that dispersants
increased toxic hydrocarbon levels in fish by a factor of up to 100 and may
kill fish eggs.
[42]
Dispersed oil droplets infiltrate into deeper water and can
lethally contaminate coral. Research indicates that some dispersants are
toxic to corals.
[43]
A 2012 study found thatCorexit dispersant had increased
the toxicity of oil by up to 52 times.
[44]

Watch and wait: in some cases, natural attenuation of oil may be most
appropriate, due to the invasive nature of facilitated methods of
remediation, particularly in ecologically sensitive areas such as
wetlands.
[45]

Dredging: for oils dispersed with detergents and other oils denser than
water.
Skimming: Requires calm waters at all times during the process.
Solidifying: Solidifiers are composed of dry hydrophobic polymers that
both adsorb and absorb. They clean up oil spills by changing the physical
state of spilled oil from liquid to a semi-solid or a rubber-like material that
floats on water. Solidifiers are insoluble in water, therefore the removal of
the solidified oil is easy and the oil will not leach out. Solidifiers have been
proven to be relatively non-toxic to aquatic and wild life and have been
proven to suppress harmful vapors commonly associated with
hydrocarbons such as Benzene, Xylene, Methyl Ethyl, Acetone and
Naphtha. The reaction time for solidification of oil is controlled by the surf
area or size of the polymer as well as the viscosity of the oil. Some
solidifier product manufactures claim the solidified oil can be disposed of
in landfills, recycled as an additive in asphalt or rubber products, or burned
as a low ash fuel. A solidifier called C.I.Agent (manufactured by C.I.Agent
Solutions ofLouisville, Kentucky) is being used by BP in granular form, as
well as in Marine and Sheen Booms at Dauphin Island andFort Morgan,
Alabama, to aid in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup.
Vacuum and centrifuge: oil can be sucked up along with the water, and
then a centrifuge can be used to separate the oil from the water - allowing a
tanker to be filled with near pure oil. Usually, the water is returned to the
sea, making the process more efficient, but allowing small amounts of oil
to go back as well. This issue has hampered the use of centrifuges due to a
United States regulation limiting the amount of oil in water returned to the
sea.
[46]

Equipment used includes:
[39]

Booms: large floating barriers that round up oil and lift the oil off the water
Skimmers: skim the oil
Sorbents: large absorbents that absorb oil
Chemical and biological agents: helps to break down the oil
Vacuums: remove oil from beaches and water surface
Shovels and other road equipment: typically used to clean up oil on
beaches
Prevention[edit]
Further information: Offshore oil spill prevention and response
Secondary containment - methods to prevent releases of oil or hydrocarbons into
environment.
Oil Spill Prevention Containment and Countermeasures (SPCC) program by
the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Double-hulling - build double hulls into vessels, which reduces the risk and
severity of a spill in case of a collision or grounding. Existing single-hull vessels
can also be rebuilt to have a double hull.
Thick-hulled railroad transport tanks
[47]
.