The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - Research Paper Example

? 16 May The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: This paper is based on the comprehensive discussion about a largely spoken and critically important issue related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is rightly considered to be one of the biggest and nightmarish disasters the world has ever seen. What with the infamous disastrous events occurring at a rapid pace like Tsunami, Haiti earthquake, floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Russia, and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it is understandable that a notorious and unfriendly tragedy has been unfolding for some years, and things are still in process of going from bad to worse. This phenomenal and epic oil spill tragedy has remained so potentially capable of every single soul around the globe that no one is oblivious to the negative consequences it produced. This paper presents a thorough discussion particularly related to the infamous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that affected many and is still continually affecting the Gulf despite many human efforts made at a global level. Both short and long-term effects of this astoundingly horrific man-made disaster are scrutinized and results are presented in this paper backed up with recent research reports regarding the disaster. Myriad efforts made to control the mass destruction caused by the oil spill are also highlighted and discussed in the paper in special relation to the differences made by those efforts, and their contribution to the restriction of the devastation. The worst ever disaster that could be imagined by anyone turned into a reality-based incident when a semisubmersible offshore drilling rig called Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and got engulfed in indescribably horrendous flames before sinking in the deep waters in 2010. Immediate casualties reported following the incident did not appear to be do large as to wreak disastrous havoc in the surroundings and the rest of the world. About 17 turned out to be injured out of 126 people who were on board and 11 are still reported to be missing who are presumed to be dead now. (Raines). This presumption is based on the viewpoint that those missing ill-fated workers must be within immediate vicinity of the unpredictable explosion, as a result of which they remained incapable of finding an escape. The Deepwater Horizon did not immediately sink in the Gulf after the dreadful explosion, rather it remained afloat for almost two days engulfed by fiery flames and leaving behind plumes of thick black smoke that were phenomenal enough to be seen from space as well as the smoke plumes were reported to be more than many miles long. The real disastrous reality was discovered some two days after the Deepwater Horizon had sunk in the Gulf. No person could imagine that the explosion of the oil drilling rig would lead to worst imaginable consequences concerning the casualties reported initially. It was only after the discovery was made regarding thousands of barrels of oil being dumped surreptitiously on daily basis into the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico that the real devastating consequences of the oil drilling rig explosion came to limelight. The story would definitely have ended with the sinking of Deepwater Horizon had it not been for the technical defect in the riser structure of the oil drilling rig that is meant for connecting the rig with the well. After the discovery was made about the daily loss of thousands of oil barrels in the water, immediate concerns regarding the Gulf’s ecosystems created a wave of pandemonium around the globe and a seemingly ended story turned into a vibrant lively disaster in full swing. The oil leakage presented a major problematic and intricate issue because researchers reported that even with the use of the best and latest scientific technology like using sophisticated robots for detecting the bedrock of the problem, the oil leak effect could take months to be suppressed and finished forever. The catch-22 faced by the US Coast Guard was that they could not even set fire to the oil for putting an end to the oil leak effect because of the major threat this action presented to the ocean life and surrounding localities. The threat was based on the nasty emissions that had to be produced as a result of burning large amounts oil. Therefore, despite the worst ever challenges that the US Coast Guard had to deal with as a result of constant oil leakage, only a small portion of oil was set to fire. Setting fire to the oil at a large scale was aimed at preventing some of the oil from reaching and destroying the sensitive ecological areas on the shore, but concerning the broad range of cons that outweighed some of the pros of this strategy, this action could not be implemented satisfactorily. One of the worst problems caused by oil leakage in the Gulf was that the areas nearby shores appeared to be quite sensitive and fragile. Now, if the oil managed in reaching those areas- which it did concerning the massive amounts of oil leaked on daily basis- then, employing even the most heavy machinery in the world would not be beneficial for the clean-up purpose. This was presumed because the use of heavy machinery on the ecologically sensitive areas must cause almost as much damage as the oil itself. Not long after the discovery made by the researchers that one thousand barrels of oil are being discharged in the water on daily basis, new facts presented even more threatening and paralyzing consequences of the oil drilling rig explosion. Facts revealed that not 1000 barrels, but 5000 or even more barrels of oil were being spewed by the leakage on daily basis. (CNN Wire Staff). This meant that nothing significant or heroic could be done to restrain the phenomenally massive amounts of oil from reaching the oversensitive sea-shore areas. This news did not take aback a lot of people that by the end of April 29, that means about 9 days after the explosion occurred, the oil had already reached the Mississippi Delta to wreak unforgettable havoc there. (Richard). What aggravated the already out-of-control situation was the unprecedented rate at which the oil travelled in the water. Just a single day after the discovery was made that 5000 barrels of oil were leaking in the water everyday, the oil was estimated by the researchers to have covered an area of 6000 square miles, which roughly equals the total area of Jamaica! (Richard). Now, the chaotic situation was that the oil was already very close to New Orleans and residents of New Orleans started claiming that they could smell oil even when it had not actually reached there. The rate at which the oil spread in the water visibly contradicted the official estimates that were initially made. The oil, in the reality, was leaking at a much faster and uncontrollable rate than imaginable according to a reliable satellite imagery organization. The facts revealed by the satellite imagery organization swirled the old horrific facts related to the oil leakage disaster so fast that people literally forgot what it felt like knowing that 5000 barrels of oil were being spilled in the water everyday. From 1000 to 5000 barrels, new facts revealed that 25000 barrels of oil leaked in the water every single day, which progressed to 60000 barrels of oil per day (CNN Wire Staff). These new discoveries made the previous discoveries related to the amounts of oil leakage appear too ordinary and optimistic. Many heavy discussions were held in an order to find out a way for shutting off one of the three underwater leaks responsible for oil leakage in the water, but this appeared to be such an impossible and intricate operation that no appropriate strategy could be planned even after days of discussion involving world-renowned engineers. It was not long after that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that “the oil slick appears to be drifting toward the Alabama and Florida coasts, including the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana's southern tip.” (Robertson and Fountain). At least, this trend of the journey made by the oil in the water appeared to be just like what was expected by the researchers. Seeing such a horrific result produced by the oil rig explosion, US public even argued massively with the US Coast Guard that why did they not set the oil on fire so that it could be stopped from affecting nor one but myriad coasts in US. If that operation had been performed earlier, there was no way oil could have travelled this much in the water and reached other coasts as well, endangering all the water species. These people apparently had no clue of what actually have happened had the oil been foolishly set on fire. Such huge plumes of smoke would have arisen from the combustion of oil that skies would have been blackened in no time at all and the air quality in southern US especially would have been heavily impacted in such an adverse way that people must have not been able to breathe even. Therefore, burning such large quantities of oil definitely appeared to be an impractical option that was never implemented. What complicated the situation even more were the crazy and outrageous remarks concerning the disaster made by officially important people and these remarks played a major role in deluding the people and misleading them about the actual graveness of the situation. The statement passed by the famous American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is just an example of those crazy judgments, which said that the oil leakage effect in the Gulf is natural and almost as natural as the water itself. (Richard). The ocean can take care of the oil leakage effect itself since it was not an issue of major concern. Limbaugh even failed to notice the type of damage done by this oil leakage to the water life and the ecosystem. It’s a sad reality that nothing significant could be done soon enough to stop the oil from damaging the water life. This is an unequivocal fact that the Gulf of Mexico is home to countless rare species, all of which were being ruthlessly damaged and killed by the toxic crude oil at an unprecedented rate. Also, the oil spill did not spare the already endangered specific fish population and heavily impacted it through its toxic potential. Many dolphins have been seen as acting drunk due to the effects of the oil spill. (Trevelyan). The impact of oil spilling on the water life is indescribably huge and horrendous. Another fact worth mentioning here is that this catastrophic situation could have been prevented from impacting water life and natural ecosystems at a large scale quite earlier, had it not been for the irresponsible attitudes displayed by the official people who wanted offshore drilling to continue unperturbed despite the oil rig explosion disaster. It was some of these official and influential people who hired prestigious public speakers to speak what they were told by them and make the public adopt a calmer and simple view regarding the explosion disaster so that not many real facts could be leaked. Their main concern was to dismiss many fears regarding the gulf oil crisis by spreading news like one of the three leakage points has been plugged. Later on, this news about plugging one of the three leaks turned out to be invalid because the operation of lowering a containment dome in the leak for stopping to oil from destroying the natural state of the Gulf proved to be a straight-off failure. Many pictures were taken by NASA which offered a closer look at the damage done by the oil spill in the Gulf and those images were released for open exhibition by the official authorities much after the images were captured so that the privately working engineers and scientists could assess them and propose solutions for the aggravated crisis. There is much controversy about the nature of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Some believe it to be a natural disaster and blame the negative environmental trends as a result of that. On the other hand, others believe that this was purely a man-made disaster and blame the technical defaults saying that deliberate technical faults in the Deepwater Horizon caused it to explode and sink in the Gulf waters. The facts revealed by the White House oil spill commission in 2011 also supported the viewpoint that the gulf oil spill was majorly a man-made disaster and three corporations BP, Halliburton, and Transocean were responsible for it who were involved in the making of Deepwater Horizon. (Oil Spill Commission). The facts supporting the claim that the gulf oil spill is a man-made disaster that wreaked large scale havoc far outweigh the myths supporting the claim that it was an environmental tragedy. In the report issued by the White House oil spill commission, BP was accused of nine major technical faults which were based on decisions made by the company for saving significant time and money and these decisions increased the likelihood of explosion and ensuing oil leakage. One of those faulty decisions was not using the diagnostic tool for checking the strength of the cement in an order to save time and money. The White House report clearly identified that “whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time and money.” (The Associated Press). Another such decision fraught with risk was deliberately putting off a pressure test that had failed initially but was not repeated despite that failure. (Broder) claims that the report concluded by mentioning that had there been better management of decision-making processes by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean, and better communication strategies among the three companies along with effective implementation of the key engineering principles by the contractors and engineers, this disastrous incident would have never occurred firstly, and would have been prevented easily even if it had occurred. At last, it was on September 19, 2010 that the relief well process was completed and the US government declared the well to be “effectively dead.” (The Associated Press). Summing up, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that the oil spill incident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, was clearly a man-made disaster based on many faulty decisions made by the engineers. The oil spill clearly cause massive damage to the marine life and created worst consequences for the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries as well. The coast side of Louisiana was heavily impacted by the oil spill and many other shoreline areas were also not spared by the massive amounts of oil spill. The gulf oil spill proved to be an astounding mortality event for the marine life. The volume and extent of the oil spill was phenomenal because no appropriate action could be taken on time and the disaster subsided because the daily flow rate of oil diminished with passing days. Works cited: Broder, John M. “Blunders Abounded Before Gulf Spill, Panel Says.” The New York Times. 05 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 May. 2011. CNN Wire Staff. “Oil estimate raised to 35,000-60,000 barrels a day.” 16 Jun. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. < http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/06/15/oil.spill.disaster/index.html> Oil Spill Commission. “Final Report (Released 01/11/2011)” 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 16 May. 2011. < http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/final-report> Raines, Ben. “Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010: The worst-case scenario.” Al.com. 30 Apr. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. Richard, Michael G. “Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The What, When and Where [UPDATED]” 03 Jun. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. < http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/gulfofmexico-oilspill-whatwhenwhere-whatyoucando.html> Richard, Michael G. “Rush Limbaugh on the BP Oil Spill: "It's as natural as the ocean water is." 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. < http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/rush-limbaugh-on-oil-spill-debunked.php> Robertson, Campbell and Fountain, Henry. “BP Moves to Fix a Leak as Obama Warns of Damage.” The New York Times. 02 May. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. The Associated Press. “Blown-out BP oil well finally killed.” EYEWITNESS NEWS. 19 Sep. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. The Associated Press. “Panel: BP, others made risky decisions before spill.” 2011. Web. 16 May. 2011. < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40932419/ns/us_news-environment/> Trevelyan, Laura. “US oil spill in Gulf 'making dolphins act drunk’” BBC NEWS. 18 Jun. 2010. Web. 16 May. 2011. Read More