The companies involved in oil spills have been fined for the environmental and economic damage these accidents have caused. If your life has been affected, contact an attorney. More Contact Info. Oil Spill Causes. Shipping Accidents With so many vessels navigating the world's waterways, in addition to other obstructions such as reefs, icebergs, and landmasses, accidents are inevitable. Explosions An explosion at the site of an exploration well that was being changed into a production well caused the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Defective or Old Parts Malfunctioning parts, poor maintenance, and defective products can also trigger oil leaks. Consult an Attorney The companies involved in oil spills have been fined for the environmental and economic damage these accidents have caused. Phone Number. Marine oil spills get most of the attention, and for good reason: there are more of them and they generally have far more damaging impacts upon the environment. While most of us have heard of some of the larger spills, the sad fact of the matter is that occur more frequently than most people are aware of.
Not all spills are as bad as the release of a nearly full tanker into the ocean, many are quite a bit smaller and occur during routine processes such as loading and unloading. While modern efforts at oil reclamation which result from these processes has improved quite a bit over past efforts, the fact remains that the oil itself still exists.
Many assume it to cease to be a problem once it has been recovered and dispersed but nothing could be further from the truth. This is done by skimming the water, since oil nearly always floats when exposed to saltwater. The oil which remains in the water is exposed to salt, forms complex emulsions with water, and is generally considered to be a complete waste, or slop, oil. This contributes greatly to the amount of hydrocarbons residing in our landfills and makes it a concern even after the recovery efforts have been initiated.
Even on land the recovery efforts are generally problematic. What oil can be skimmed off the ground must be reprocessed and that which settles into the soil has ridiculous levels of particulate matter which render it essentially hazardous material instead of the useful solution it once was. Quite often much of the topsoil must be removed, which is particularly problematic in agricultural areas.
The oil which can be recovered from either kind of spill is usually reprocessed as well as possible and must be sold at a much lower grade. In essence, the oil spill hurts the environment, the people who must labor to recover it, and the bottom line of the industry itself. Thus, the preferred method of disposal has been to mix them with crude oil and put them through a refinery. Oil slicks, like the one currently floating in the Gulf, affect wildlife by coating their bodies in the water-repelling gunk.
Since it floats, all sorts of marine animals, even birds , can take a hit. And fish sometimes mistake the floating slick for food and so are attracted to it, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. When birds' feathers get coated with oil, they lose their ability to trap air and repel water, meaning the animals can't maintain body heat.
The result: hypothermia. Marine animals, such as sea otters, which depend on their clean fur coats to stay warm, can also become hypothermic, according to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. Currently, the oil rig is currently well offshore, though experts have said any turn in winds and currents could send oil toward coastal wetlands where plenty of animals live.
In addition, a pod of sperm whales is known to feed in the area of the oil well where the Deepwater Horizon sank, according to news reports.
According to the Minerals Management Service , offshore drilling in U. Most of the oil products in the United States are made out of crude oil — the rough, unprocessed form of oil. Gasoline, heating oil, petroleum and diesel fuel are all made from crude oil. Depending on the stage of processing, any one of these oils can get spilled into the environment.
If the spill happens during the extraction process, crude oil is leaked. However, if the spill occurs after the crude oil has been refined, diesel fuel or petroleum is leaked.
If the spill happens when a tanker's fuel supply is punctured, gasoline — another refined crude oil product - would seep into the environment. Gasoline and diesel fuel molecules are smaller than crude oil molecules. Because of this, gasoline and diesel spills evaporate more quickly. However, these oils are highly toxic to living things, and can kill organisms that breathe in their fumes or absorb these oils through their skin. Crude oil and other so-called heavy oils are dangerous in a different way.
Although they are less toxic, they are thick and gluey and can smother living creatures. By covering the feathers of birds or the fur of marine mammals, these oils prevent the animals from maintaining their normal body temperatures, leading to death from hypothermia. And these oils don't evaporate, so they can remain in the environment for much longer. According to the U. Department of Energy , 1. A major oil spill could easily double that amount. Between and , the U. Coast Guard identified more than , oil spills in U.
Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service. Approximately 1. The Persian Gulf oil spill of is so far the biggest oil spill in the world. As Iraqi troops retreated from Kuwait during the first Gulf War, they opened the valves of oil wells and pipelines, pouring up to 8 million barrels into the Gulf, though estimates on the exact amount of oil spilled vary.
This would put this spill at several times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Tanker accidents have accounted for most of the world's largest oil spills. They are less frequent than other kinds of oil spills, such as pipeline breaks, but typically involve large volumes of spilled oil relative to other kinds of oil spills.
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