Transcript Gulf oil spill’s affect on water quality and wildlife

THE GULF OIL SPILL
Exxon Valdez
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March 24, 1989
10.8 gallons
1100 miles of Alaskan coast
Valdez was carrying 53
million gallons
• Impact on environment
Nowruz Oil Field Spill
• February 10Semptember 18 1983
• Persian Gulf, Iran
• 80 million gallons
Kolva River
• September 8, 1994
• Kolva River, Russia
• Pipeline
• 84 million gallons
Atlantic Empress
• July 19, 1979
• Off of Trinidad and
Tobago
• 90 million gallons
Ixtoc 1
• June 3, 1979- March 23,
1980
• Bay of Campeche, Mexico
• 140 million gallons
1st Gulf War
• January 19, 1991
• Persian Gulf, Kuwait
• 380-520 million gallons
Deep Water Horizon
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April 20 – July 15, 2010
Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana
205.8 million gallons
Effectively dead September
19, 2010
The Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill
Currents, Oil Movement, and the
Gulf Dead Zone
Dead Zone
• Area of water near the mouth of the
Mississippi with D.O. concentration of < 2 ppm
• Variable in size, can cover 6,000-7,000 sq. mi.
• Begins at Mississippi delta, extends westward
to Texas
http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/
Dead Zone
http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/hypoxia/products
Dead Zone
http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/hypoxia/products
Dead Zone
http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/hypoxia/products
Dead Zone
http://ecowatch.ncddc.noaa.gov/hypoxia/products
Dead Zone
http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/
http://www.mygeoinfo.com/2010/05/13/map-of-location-of-the-bp-oil-spill-and-deepwater-horizon/
Dead Zone
• Found worldwide, Gulf’s is one of the largest
• Hypoxic conditions occur because of runoff
from farms in waters of the Mississippi-promotes algal growth
• Leads to depletion of dissolved oxygen in
water
• Linked to fish kills in Gulf
http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/
If Containment Fails….
• Formation of the Gulf
Stream
• Entrance: Yucatan Strait
• Produces ‘Loop Current’
• Exits: Florida Strait
forming the Gulf Stream
• With the Gulf: Loop
generates eddies
Containment Failure: the Global
Scale
• “Conveyor Belt”
• Oil possibly limiting Gulf
from receiving hot
water from E. currents
• Lowers ability to warm
N. hemisphere
• Eventually stop all
currents???
Thus far….
• Zone temperature
changes
• Domino effect of
continental climate
change
Gulf oil spill’s affect on water
quality and wildlife
Water quality: Dissolved Oxygen
• Low dissolved oxygen (DO2) levels have been
detected in contaminated areas
• DO2 depression have been observed more than
80 km from the well head
• DO2 depression likely due to increased
biochemical oxygen demand to metabolize oil
hydrocarbons
• DO2 levels have not approached hypoxic levels
• DO2 depression does not seem to be worsening
due to mixing of high and low DO2 waters
Water quality: Chemical levels
• Above normal oil and chemical levels have
been observed in waters and sediments many
miles from well head
• No samples exceeded the EPA’s human health
or dispersants benchmarks
• About 1% of samples exceeded aquatic life
benchmark
Effects on Wildlife
Effects on Wildlife: Birds
• Seabirds can dive into
oil slicks thinking they
are calm water
• Oil makes birds unable
to regulate body
temperature
• Leads to hyperthermia
Marine Mammals
• Whales and dolphins
can come up to breath
in oil slicks
• Can cause respiratory
problems or suffocation
• Dolphins have been
known to follow clean
up ships into slicks
Fish/Crustaceans/Mollusks
• Adult fish, shrimp,
crabs, and oysters
metabolize oil
hydrocarbons (at
different rates)
• Real threat is to shore
line nursery areas
• Contamination can lead
to death of future
generations
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04
/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html
Food Concerns
• Many people are
suspicious of seafood
from the Gulf
• Tests show there is little
hazard from oil in
seafood
• Animals metabolize
hydrocarbons and
remove them from their
systems
Hesco units
Seven hours to build1500 sandbag
equivalent
Absorbent & Containment Booms
Oil Skimming boats
don’t pick up 100% oil
can harm environment
themselves
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http://news.discovery.com/tech/how-do-oil-skimmers-work.html
http://earthquakes-today.info/2010/08/oil-spill-clean-up-methods-saving-gulf-coast-beaches/
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/giant_oil_skimmer_a_whale_deem.html
CLEANING UP THE GULF
OIL DISPERSANTS
Dispersant Use
• Breaks up oil before it reaches the beaches
and marshes on land
• 1.8 million gallons were used on the surface
and at source of oil leakage – more than has
ever been used by the US before
• Dispersing the oil causes many marine animals
to be subject to oil that would not have been
without using dispersants, which have
unknown effects
How Dispersant Works
o Sprayed on surface of water, breaks oil down
into tiny suspended droplets, over time
broken down by oil-eating bacteria, sunlight,
and wave action and dispersed throughout
the ocean or sinks to the bottom
o Toxic to marine animals that
live/spawn/reproduce there, trades one
ecosystem for another
Dispersal of Dispersants
• Most sprayed from airplanes, however in this
specific instance was injected at the well’s leaking
riser a mile below the surface, effects of which
had previously never been tested
• No idea how oil, dispersants, and bacteria will
react under such high pressure, low temps and
O2, and no light
• If oil not degraded by bacteria, could linger for
decades on bottom of ocean floor or carried to
deep sea coral reefs
Estimated Cost of Cleanup
• Former BP CEO Tony
Hayward initially stated that
BP would take full economic
responsibility for all of
those affected.
• On June 16, after meeting
with President Obama, BP
executives agreed to create
a $20 billion spill response
fund
• Attorney Kenneth Feinberg
is in charge of this escrow
account.
• By November, BP said it had
sent $1.7 billion in checks.
• Estimates state that about
$6 billion of the fund will be
paid out in claims, including
government aims and
cleanup costs. Feinberg
plans to return the
remaining $14 billion to BP
once all the settlements are
paid out by August 2013.[
Companies Negatively Impacted
• Fishing in Louisiana alone supplies roughly
40% of US seafood.
• Approximately 36% of Gulf federal waters
were closed off during the clean-up
processes.
• The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is estimated
to cost the industry $2.4 billion.
• Tourism in Florida is another industry that
has been largely affected.
• The region’s tourism industry is expected to
be impacted for an additional 2.5 years and
suffer a total loss of $22.7 billion.
Companies Positively Impacted
• Clean Harbors, a company dedicated
to coastal restoration, was employed
to help in clean-up efforts.
• They saw an increase in market
shares of at least 12%.
• Nalco Holdings has benefited greatly
from the oil spill.
• Production of Corexit has caused
shares to increase dramatically, even as
much as 6% in one day.
Price Jumps/Supply and Demand
• There are 195 seafood
processors across the
Gulf Coast employing
more than 9,000
workers and generating
more than $1 billion in
revenue a year.
• Seafood supply is down
because fishermen who
normally bring in the
crabs, shrimp and fish
have been employed
with BP cleaning up the
spill or have not been
able to return to their
fisheries because of the
oil.
Price Jumps/Supply and Demand
• At the same time,
demand is down
because their longtime
customers, such as
restaurants and grocery
chains, have turned to
other sources or are
skittish to buy Gulf
seafood.
• This is a classic supply
chain problem that is
caused by tainted
resources and a tainted
reputation of where the
product is coming from.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2010-10-08oilspill08_ST_N.htm
Discussion Questions
• Should we continue to use oil dispersants as
standard protocol for cleaning up oil spills
considering what we now know and still don’t
know about their effects on other
ecosystems?
• Disregarding the dilution effects of the oceans,
what is the potential distance that oil
dispersants can be distributed? How?
• Should we continue deep-sea fishing in the
Gulf even with the oil contaminating the
water?
• Do you think it is right to allow companies to
profit from the oil spill clean up especially
when some of those companies were also
involved in the failures that led to the spill?
• Where should the finical aid come
from? What majority should come from the
government, BP, or tax payers. In the end how
is the local economy and consumer affected?
• Based off of the information that we have
presented and that which you previously
possessed, do you believe that the United
States and the other Gulf Coast Nations
should allow future offshore oil drilling?