Solutions and Preventions of Oil Spills - Assignment Example

According to the data from Cohn (2010), the 1991 war in Kuwait contributed 57% of all oil spills, one man ordered the scorched earth policy which led to this pollution. Twenty-two percent of oil spilled was due to two explosions on ships and one on an off-shore drilling platform. None of these three were oil or gas explosions but rather engine rooms and boiler rooms. Katrina destroyed tank storage areas on land, about half the volume was with one tank storage company, and a large spill occurred when the Cadiz ran aground during a storm off the coast of France.

In total, weather accounted for 12% of the spills by volume. Human error accounts for the Valdez (2%) and the Deepwater Horizon platform (8%). Leaks from platforms were less than 1% of the total. Contract well-cappers doused the fires of Kuwait, recovered a small amount of oil from lakes and essentially mopped up the rest, losing a lot of mass to evaporation and ground absorption. According to Cohn (2010), an international study concluded the long-term effects were minimal although some Kuwaitis were exposed to elevated hydrocarbon doses from the desalination water supply.

Kuwait does not enjoy a fresh groundwater supply. In the Cohn (2010) article, the first use of bioremediation in open water was the Mega Borg oil spill, and it was effective. The other open water remediation techniques used have been: mechanical skimming, sorbents, chemical dispersants, solidifiers and solubilizers, and the ensuing fires from explosions. Response Techniques, according to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPAa)Mechanical containment and recovery is the current primary remediation strategy.

Booms contain spills, skimmers remove floating fractions and sorbent materials soak the oil into an inert mass. Chemical agents such as dispersants and gelling agents help dilute the product down to non-toxic levels of contamination. These methods are utilized near shorelines and sensitive areas. Physical methods like scrubbing and pressure washing rocks, mopping shorelines with sorbent materials and even raking or bulldozing beaches dilutes the product by mass. Biological methods include bioremediation which is the use of oil mineralizing bacteria applied to the spill to reduce the mass of oil leaving carbon dioxide and water.

(EPAg, 2011) Perhaps the bigger issue is the 14,000 oil releases reported each year according to the EPA (EPAc, 2011) No doubt spilled hydrocarbon is a threat to the freshwater supply, especially groundwater, and marine life (EPAb, 2011); however, not all reported spills are oil. The Clean Water Act (EPAf, 1972) actually regulates all oils, so, literally, spilled milk is a reportable release; however, EPA expects to exempt milk fairly soon from these regulations (EPAe, 2011). The EPA sets forth guidelines for emergency response management as well (EPAd, 2011) with federal official on-scene coordinators and regional response teams of professionals.

Dispersants, for example, dilute the mass of hydrocarbon throughout the water column. Evaporation moves the hydrocarbon to a second medium, air, and disperses it by the wind. Bioremediation is the sole method by which oil is actually degraded, reducing mass; and, therefore is the best solution. Where it is limited in open waters and at very high concentrations of oil, it is the natural and elegant solution once the plume has breached the wetland, or for soil spills. Quick response is necessary though, not the thinking that includes milk with benzene.

Unfortunately, severe damage to wetlands occurs with large spills that reach them. But a study of those nine spills suggests burning the product off open water causes the least ecological damage. The explosion and fire sites were less impacted for shorter periods of time. And if the product reaches the shore safely in its container ship, it will be burned anyway. In conclusion, the best method for dealing with open water spills is burning the product to reduce the mass and then treat the shallow waters biologically.

On land, bioremediation is the technique of choice to eliminate the mass of contaminant.