Introduction
In
oil industries, the oil spill can cause severe effects to the surrounding water
and wildlife depending on the amount of oil spilled. The oil spillage can occur
due to the released amount of oil and petroleum into the sea and the breakdown
of oil tankers. To minimize the bad effect and protect the environment, varied
cleanup approaches are followed depending on the environmental conditions,
amount of spills, financial aid offered public demand and legal liability among
others.
The worst oil
spill in United State history was in March 24th 1989, when the tanker Exxon
Valdez hit an undersea reef and spilled over 10 million gallons of crude oil
into the water. This occurrence had severe economic and environmental
consequences with the loss of billions of fishes, seals, seabirds, killer
whales and eagles.
On the other
hand, the largest oil spill in United State history was in April 22th 2010. The
deep water horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig sank at Gulf of Mexico,
rises the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig became
detached and began leaking oil. As a result, eleven people died in the blast. In
addition, U.S. Coast Guard investigators discovered a leak in the wellhead
itself. As much as 60,000 barrels of oil per day were leaking into the water,
threatening wildlife along the Louisiana Coast.
Causes, Effects
and Consequences of EVOS against DWHS
Since
oil spills are site-dependent occurrences, they elicit particular associated
environmental consequences. The impending consequences of any oil spill are
dependent of several factors among them; physical conditions, type of oil,
currents, wind, wildlife density and restoration approaches. The Exxon Valdez
oil spill (EVOS) elicits fundamental differences in site-dependent factors from
the Deepwater Horizon spill (DWHS). Even though much greater volume of oil was
spilled in DWHS than in EVOS, these two scenarios exhibit extreme differences
in environmental, hence effects. The total volume of oil spilled in EVOS was
41.6 million liters as compared to 779 million liters in and methane gas DWHS
as approximated by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group
(FRTG), although DWHS volume estimates of oil spillage is still a subject of
court trial.
The EVOS constituted
the North Slope Heavy Oil (API 29) which was heavier and densely viscous as
compared to the DWHS which constituted the Light Louisiana Oil (API 35.2). Even
though both oils are biodegradable, the less dense crude oil spillage of DWHS
was more readily biodegradable initially as compared to the more dense oil
discharged in EVOS. Bioremediation was extensively employed in EVOS while
aerial and subsurface dispersants were extensively employed in DWHS to salvage
the situation. In addition, EVOS occurred as surface spill relatively closer to
the Bligh shore, while the DWHS arose as a gush from an oil well 5,000 feet
below the ocean floor in form of deep-sea ‘plume’ and surface water leak about
80 kilometers far from the shore (Atlas, 2011).
Environmental impact
Although it
goes without saying that the DWHS disaster released much more oil than was the
case in EVOS, EVOS elicited a greater environmental impact on a number of
significant resources. For instance, during the EVOS incident more than 10 fold
more oiled dead birds (about 35,000) were found than during the DWHS occurrence
(6,381) (The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, 2013). This could however
be attributed to the mode of bird collection during DWHS as compared to during
the EVOS disaster (Belanger et al, 2010). Of equal importance is the fact that
the EVOS incident led to considerably increased mortality toll of oiled marine
mammals than was evident in DWHS. The EVOS incident saw about 866 sea otter
mortality toll out of which 602 were oiled.
Prevention of Future Oil Spill Accidents
Major oil spill
accidents normally involve oil tankers and oil infrastructure such as drilling
rigs both operated by oil companies. Since there have been virtually no
infallible oil spill salvage methods available, oil spill prevention remains
the sole approach in the management of oil transportation and mining . The two
fundamental overall strategies that would change companies’ conduct as far as
oil spill prevention is concerned include either obligatory government
regulatory policies or voluntary schemes normally followed up by Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) (Frynas, 2012). Frynas asserts that the growth of
CSR is expressed by the outstanding development of company codes of conduct as
well as reports of social and environmental statuses. This has seen about 95%
of world’s leading companies officially being annually accountable to CSR
operations, especially, including oil companies. Oil companies have also had
voluntary self- reporting to annually publish environmental indicators
available in the worldwide Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guiding principles
of 2006 as well as the sector-based Oil and Gas Industry Guidance Reports.
Frynas notes that there has been a remarkable proof of oil spill prevention
over time from the 1970s well into 2009.
On the other
hand, the development of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission that generated a
report made 60 formal recommendations to the U.S. government for the prevention
of future oil spills. Besides, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
that probed EVOS found that drinking by the ship’s captain, fatigue and
overworking of the crew were contributing factors; hence, it made numerous
stringent novel guidelines for prevention of future incidences.
Conclusion
It is evident
that the response times to the past spills were slow, since the Coast Guard
personnel responsible for the cleanup exercise were relatively unprepared and
exhibited frustration. Even though natural responses such as evaporation and
bacterial action can degrade crude oil during slow release, rapid human
interventions stated above are fundamental to successfully salvage large
amounts of spilled crude oil. More often than not, salvage teams are presented
with several cleanup techniques necessary for removal of oil, however, the
effectiveness of each approach lies upon the environmental conditions
surrounding location of the spill and the particular technique of the response.
It is also important for international governing bodies to set up stringent
universal guidelines that will regularly check the conduct of oil mining and
transport companies for the prevention of future oil spills.
References
Atlas
R. M. (2011). Oil Biodegradation and Bioremediation: A Tale of the Two Worst
Spills in U.S. History. Environmental
Science & technology 45: 6709-6715
Frynas
J. G. (2012). “Corporate Social Responsibility or Government regulation?
Evidence on Oil Spill Prevention”. Ecology
and Society 17(4)
