Oil Spills

Oil Spills – are they really a problem?

In this report, we detail oil spills, with their causes, effects and required management. However, to properly understand oil spills as a disaster, one must first understand what a disaster means, and the process of disaster management. Hence, our objectives are to:

• 
  Introduce, define, describe and classify disasters.
• Introduce disaster management and its key components.
• Introduce oil spills as a disaster and describe them in detail.
• Provide a case study on a major oil spill.
• Explain the disaster management process of oil spills.

Disasters

What is a Disaster?

A disaster is a serious problem occurring over time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

In simpler words, any problem that causes major loss to a community, which that community cannot fix on their own, is known as a disaster.

Disasters lead to a disruption in social activities. Events that occur in uninhabited areas are not considered as disasters.

Developing countries suffer the most due to disasters, with over 95% of deaths due to hazards.

Hazards, Disasters and Risks

The terms hazard, disaster and risk are often confused or used interchangeably. They have, in fact, different meanings.

A hazard is a dangerous event that poses a threat to humans. It is also known as a ‘peril’. Simply, it is anything that could cause harm.

A disaster is an event that harms human life, property and thus disrupts social activities.

A hazard can be a precursor to disaster. Using mitigation techniques in disaster management, we can prevent a hazard from becoming a disaster.

Events that occur in uninhabited areas are considered hazards, not disasters, as they do not affect the society.

Risk is a combination of the chance that the hazard will cause harm and how serious that harm could be.

Disasters are the consequence of inappropriately managed risk.

Classification of Disasters

Disasters can be broadly categorized into natural and man-made disasters.

However, classifying disasters is not easy, as they can be caused by multiple factors, or even other disasters, which makes them hard to discern or classify. For example, disasters like smog and acid rain are often incorrectly categorized as natural disasters.

Natural disasters may also be accelerated by humans, for example, deforestation can lead to an increase in droughts. These are sometimes referred to as human – accelerated disasters.

Disasters can also be further classified as major or minor disasters. For example:

Major Natural Disasters

·       Floods

·       Cyclones

·       Droughts

·       Earthquakes

Minor Natural Disasters

·       Mud slides

·       Storms

·       Heat waves

·       Cold waves

Major Man-made Disasters

·       Wars

·       Deforestation

·       Chemical Pollution

·       Epidemics

Minor Man-made Disasters

·       Environmental pollution

·       Road accidents

·       Riots

·       Food Poisoning

Impacts of a Disaster

The effect of a disaster on people, buildings and society is known as its impact. The impact may be caused directly or indirectly by the disaster.

Quantifying the losses from a disaster is also not easy, as some effects may not be quantifiable.

The psychological effect that disasters pose can also be considered an impact of it.

Disaster Management

What is Disaster Management?

Disaster Management is the process through which a community reduces its vulnerabilities to disasters, reduces the damages caused by them, and aids in the recovery after the disease has happened.

The process can be divided into 4 key components: Mitigation, Preparation, Response and Recovery.

The aim is to prevent disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.

Mitigation

The goal of mitigation is to protect people and property while also decreasing risks and consequences from a given disaster situation.

It aims to reduce vulnerability to the impacts of a disaster, such as property damage, injuries, and loss of life.

The mitigation phase happens before the disaster takes place.

For example, you can relocate structures to less disaster-prone areas to decrease the chance of them being affected by certain disasters.

You can also improve the drainage facility and add diversion canals to protect from flooding. For example, the image shows Tujunga Wash, a diversion canal in California.

Preparation

The goal of preparation is to act ahead of time to be ready by the time a disaster strikes.

Providing training and education on disaster safety as well as providing regular drills to practice for times of need are good ways to prepare for a disaster.

An emergency kit can also be a helpful thing to put together before a disaster strikes. Basic items like non-perishable food, clean water, a flashlight, batteries, medicine, first aid kit, sanitary items and money can be extremely useful in times of crisis.

Response

Response is the first thing you do after disaster strikes.

Protection or rescue from immediate danger and maintaining physical and emotional stability of yourself and others are important aspects of responding to a disaster.

Finding food, water and shelter is often the first step to take. Finding help through radio devices, phones, or landlines is also a good idea.

Different disasters require different responses. For example, when an earthquake strikes, you should drop under a sturdy desk or table and protect your eyes by keeping your head down.

Recovery

Recovery is the restoration of the affected areas to a state similar or better than before the disaster struck.

After the imminent danger of the disaster is over, individuals, communities and institutions start to focus on the recovery from the effects of the disaster.

The recovery process can take days, weeks, months or years depending on the disaster.

Recovery then leads to the mitigation and preparation for the next disaster, completing the cycle.

What is an Oil Spill?

An oil spill is the release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbons into the environment. Petroleum hydrocarbons are chemicals that comprise of oil or products refined from oil (petrol, diesel, etc.)

Oil spills can be classified as a major man-made disaster. They can cause major environmental, economic and social damage, as well as being very difficult to clean up.

Oil spills can occur both on water and land, but the term usually refers to marine oil spills.

Causes of Oil Spills

Over time, seafloor rocks and sedimentations slowly release oil. In fact, a lot of the oil present in the ocean comes from natural seeps, however, these do not have a huge impact on the ocean as it has adapted, such as the evolution of ocean bacteria to digest oils.

Waste oils are also sometimes deliberately expelled into the ocean after being consumed, although this is a violation of international regulations.

The most widely known cause is the accidental spills which occur due to disasters or problems occurring to tankers, ships, oil rigs, etc.

Oil is also spilt during its extraction process.

Other minor causes exist, such as terrorists sabotaging pipelines or oil rigs as an act of war, oil spills from recreational boats, runoff from land, etc.

Causes of Oil Spills – Broken down

According to the United Nations Environment Program, these are the rates of different causes of oil spills -

• Natural Seeps: 46%
• Discharges from consumption of oil: 37%
  
• Accidental Spills: 12%
• Extraction of oil: 3%
• Other: 2%

Spills from Oil Tankers – Broken Down

The main causes of oil tanker spills as of 2007 were:

• Collision: 29%
• Grounding: 22%
• Mishandling: 14%
• Sinking: 12%
• Others: 23%

Around 90% of the world's oil transportation is through oil tankers.

Impact of Oil Spills

Impact on Humans

Toxic compounds in oil are known to cause health problems such as heart damage, stunted growth, liver problems, damage to the respiratory, reproductive, and immune system, and even death.

Oil spills can cause fires, like the oil fires in Kuwait, which can cause respiratory diseases due to the air pollution.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion, which caused an oil spill and fire, killed 11 workers and injured 17.

The average volume of oil spill annually is about 115,000 barrels, which is worth about $4.58 million. Thus, oil spills can also be economically damaging.

Impact on Birds and Animals

Oil spills can affect the environment both through the oil or the cleanup process.

Oil penetrates the structure of the plumage of birds and the fur of mammals, reducing their insulating ability, and making them much less buoyant in the water.

Oil can impair a bird's ability to fly, and blind animals

Animals who rely on scent for navigation cannot do so due to the strong scent of the oil.

The ingestion of oil causes poisoning, dehydration and impairs the digestive process.

Impact on the Environment

The chemicals found in oil can be extremely lethal and polluting. They can evaporate or oxidize and mix with the atmosphere.

Fires caused by oil spills can be extremely polluting. For example, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred near America, caused significant air quality issues in the Gulf Coast of the US.

Oils spills, which have a huge impact on birds and animals, can throw off the balance of the surrounding ecosystem.

The cleaning of oil spills or trying to fix the damages can also cause damage to the environment. Not only is this process extremely difficult and expensive, but it is also not possible to fully clean or recover from an oil spill.

Major Oil Spills

Kuwaiti Oil Fires

The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the Iraqi military setting fire to a reported 605 to 732 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy (destroying the land to leave nothing of value) while retreating from Kuwait due to the Gulf War.

The fires lasted from January 16 to November 6, 1991, and consumed around 42 billion barrels worth of oil.

This event made an immense impact on Kuwait’s environment and economy.

The extinguishing process consisted of blasting seawater at the fires, which mixed with the oil to create huge oil spills, now known as the Kuwait Oil Lakes.

This oil is still causing damage to the surrounding wildlife, and since then there has been no cleanup process in over 30 years, it is extremely difficult to restore the environment.

Gulf War Oil Spill / Persian Gulf Oil Spill

In January 1991, Iraqi forces began dumping oil into the Persian Gulf to stop the US from landing on their shores as part of their “Operation Desert Storm”.

This spill, of 380 million gallons, affected beaches of Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain and Qatar, but caused the most damage to Saudi Arabia.

Lakeview Gusher

The Lakeview Gusher was an eruption of around 378 million gallons of oil from a pressurized oil well in the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, California, in 1910.

Early oil drilling technology lacked modern safety features like blowout preventers.

Deepwater Horizon

On 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig, exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring 17.

Around 206 million gallons of oil was spilled following the explosion.

Ixtoc 1

On 3 June 1979, Ixtoc 1, an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, suffered a blowout.

Around 140 million gallons of oil was spilled because of this blowout.

Case Study - Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible
offshore drilling rig, owned by Transocean and operated by BP.

It was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2001 and could operate in waters up to 3000 m deep.

In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a measured depth of 10,685 m in the Tiber Oil Field.

It was described as ‘one of the most powerful rigs in the world’.

Location

The rig was then operating in the Macondo Prospect.

The Macondo Prospect is an oil and gas prospect in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone of the Gulf of Mexico. It is officially known as MC252 (Mississippi Canyon Block 252).

A prospect is an area of exploration where oil or gas has been predicted to exist in economic quantity.

BP, or British Petroleum Company, operates the Macondo Prospect, with a 65% share of the
Prospect. This is why the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is also known as the BP Oil Spill.

The site was roughly 66 km off the Louisiana Coast, which is full of beaches prone to oil spills.

Deepwater Horizon Explosion / Blowout

At 9:49 PM, on April 20, 2010, the rig was suddenly shaken, and seven minutes later, pressurized methane gas from the oil well burst through several seals, rapidly expanded and ignited.

The rig’s blowout preventer, which was supposed to shut off the flow of pressurized gas, failed to seal the well.

The result was an explosion, which was followed by a fire that engulfed the platform. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others.

At 10:21 am, on April 22, the rig sank, with oil continuing to leak from the rig at about 340,000 gallons per day.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The oil leak was discovered on the afternoon of 22 April 2010 when a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site.

The oil continued flowing for 87 days after it began.

BP originally estimated a flow rate of 1,000 to 5,000 bbl/d (barrels per day) but the Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) estimated the initial flow rate to be 62,000 bbl/d, which BP denied.

According to the satellite images, the spill directly affected 180,000 sq. km of ocean, and by June, the spill had ended up on 201 km of Louisiana’s coast.

In the following months, the oil spill managed to affect the coastlines of several other US states.

Deepwater Horizon Response

Containment booms (temporary floating barriers - see picture) stretching over 1300 km were deployed.

The Louisiana barrier island plan was a project focused on constructing barrier islands protecting the coast of Louisiana from oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Although it was highly ineffective, it is now repurposed to protect against hurricanes, storms and rising ocean.

A total of 1.84 million gallons of Corexit oil dispersant was used to break down the oil.

This was sprayed by military aircrafts and applied at the well, 1500 m under the sea.

Deepwater Horizon Recovery

The oil dispersants were able to degrade the oil so that the bacteria can digest it faster.

Skimmer boats (image) were used to remove most of the oil, while sorbents (materials that
can absorb, adsorb or both) took care of the rest, although the oil spill cannot be erased completely.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rescued animals to help with the spill cleanup, although there were many animals found dead

Some of the oil was also burnt during the initial fire, or naturally dispersed.

On 15 April 2014, BP announced that cleanup along the coast was substantially complete.

Deepwater Horizon Environmental Consequences

The spill area was called one of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world, hosting 8332 species.

In July 2010, it was reported that the spill was ‘already having a devastating effect on marine life in the Gulf’.

Tar balls continued washing up on US coastlines as late as 2012 and were still found on the beaches in the later years.

A 2015 study found that the dispersants used were more toxic to coral life than the oil itself.

Cleanup workers exposed to the oil have developed severe respiratory issues and even cancer.

Deepwater Horizon Economic Consequences

BP spent a total of over $65 billion on cleanup costs, charges and penalties, and is still paying for the incident that happened in 2010.

Due to the loss of market value, BP had dropped from the second to the fourth largest oil company by 2013.

The oil spill was estimated to cost the fishing industry $2.5 billion, the tourism industry $23 billion and even managed to drop real estate prices in the Gulf of Mexico.

The total oil spilt was around 4.9 million barrels, which was then worth around $392 million.

What Happened to the Oil?

• Directly Recovered: 17%
• Burnt: 5%
• Skimmed: 3%
• Chemically Dispersed: 16%
• Naturally Dispersed: 13%
  
• Evaporated / Dissolved: 24%
• Other: 22% (remaining in the water, settled in the sea floor, mixed with sediment, ingested by microbes, etc.)

Disaster Management Process of Oil Spills

Mitigation

The main cause for oil spills is human negligence. People often cut corners when dealing with safety equipment to save on time and money, however, the consequences of an oil spill greatly outweigh the cost of investing in a good safety system.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred because of the failure of the blowout preventer.

To prevent accidental oil spills, it is important to invest in preventive measures, both through safety devices and training.

When it comes to safety, cutting corners is not a good idea.

Preparation for Oil Spills

Adequately preparing for an oil spill can make it easier to recover from and reduce its impacts.

Having container booms on hand will stop the oil from spreading too far, which will make the cleanup process much faster.

Keeping an oil spill kit can also be a good idea and a way to quickly clean up smaller spills.

Keeping the contact information of the authorities related to oil spills in your specific area is also important.

Response to Oil Spills

After an oil spill takes place, it is very important to try and reduce the damage before focusing on the recovery.

Acting quickly is very important, as the oil can spread very quickly.

Before taking any action, protect yourself and warn any others. Not only can the oil irritate your skin and lungs, but you are also at risk of oil fires.

Use containment booms (or spill berms on land - see picture) to keep the oil in one place, reducing its impact.

This can give you time to properly assess the extent of the spill and the best way to recover, as well as time to contact the related authorities.

Recovery from Oil Spills

The way to recover from an oil spill is to remove the oil from the environment and to remove its effects.

Oil can be absorbed with sorbent pads or broken down by dispersants.

Sometimes, the oil on the surface may be burnt, also called in situ burning. This, however, poses a threat to the environment.

Oils can also be skimmed off the surface by modified boats, known as skimmers.

The natural environment can also play a role in restoring the surroundings. Special bacteria in the ocean can digest oils.

Rescue missions to find and save affected animals can take place after the oil is cleaned up to minimize damage to the natural ecosystem.

Conclusion

"We can't control the wind, but we can adjust the sails." - Thomas S. Monson”

Through this report, we have understood oil spills, with their causes, effects and management. We have learnt about some major oil spills, with a case study on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We have also understood disasters and related terms, and the process of disaster management.

References

oils.gpa.unep.org - Global Marine Oil Pollution Information Gateway

sgp.fas.org/crs - Congressional Research Service

wikipedia.org - Wikipedia

noaa.gov - US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

britannica.com - Encyclopedia Britannica

epa.gov - US Environmental Protection Agency