Effects of oil spills on the environment

What is Oil Spill Pollution?

• Oil spill pollution can include any spill of crude oil or distilled products (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene, hydraulic oils)
• Oil Spill Pollution is the “negative polluting effects that oil spills have” on the environments and living organisms due to the environmental discharge of various organic compounds that compromise crude oil and oil distillate products, that have various hydrocarbons.

What are Hydrocarbons?

• Hydrocarbons are molecules made exclusively from carbon and hydrogen atoms which bind together in many different ways, resulting in paraffins (normal alkanes), isoparraffins (isoalkanes), aromatics (benzene or other PAHs), cycloakanes and unsaturated alkanes (alkenes and alkynes). Other individual compounds that are in crude oil and oil discharges include (other than carbon and hydrogen) sulfur, nitrogen and/ or oxygen atoms.  
• An alkane is any of the series of saturated hydrocarbons including methane, ethane, propane, and higher members

The Oil Spill Act

• The Oil Spill Act established new requirements and amended the U.S. Federal Water Pollution Control Act in order to provide enhanced capabilities for oil spill response and natural resource damage assessment;
• The Oil Spill Act required the Coast Guard to strengthen its regulations on oil tank vessels;

How does it affect humans directly?

• Direct contact with the skin
• Through inhalation - Many individual parts of oil are volatile and tus may easily evaporate and while breathing can enter our bodies. Some less volatile compounds (such as PAHs) may absorb on dust and other small matter in the air
• Through ingestion - of contaminated water or other particles
• Through emitted odors - diesel/gas smell by water

How does it affect humans indirectly?

• By consuming contaminated food - (some of the oil hydrocarbons such as PAHs bioaccumulate in fish and other organisms may concentrate many times more than in water
• By disrupting professional and/or recreational activities due to the oil pollution in certain areas
• By decreased property values - from the affected areas - the area is polluted
• Aesthetically - by the visual alteration of marine, beach and many other environments where the oil spills have occurred

Oil spills can kill birds

• Oil-covered birds are practically a universal symbol of the environmental damage wreaked by oil spills. Some species of shore birds may escape by relocating if they sense the danger in time, but sea birds that swim and dive for their food are the most likely to be covered in oil in the event of a spill.

Long term Effects on the environment

• • • Oil contamination may persist in the marine environment for many years after an oil spill and, in exceptional cases such as salt marshes and mangrove swamps, the effects may be measurable for decades after the event. However, in most cases, environmental recovery is relatively swift and is complete within 2–10 years.
    • Where oil has been eliminated from the scene, the long-term environmental impacts are generally confined to community structure anomalies that persist because of the longevity of the component species.

How can you help?

Things we can do include:

• Donating to a trustworthy organization such as Oceana, to donate visit http://oceana.org/
• Researching Oil Spills and making others aware of the problem

Biggest oil spills of all time

• Gulf War oil spill (kuwait) - 818 000 - 1 091 000 Tonnes of crude oil
• Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico) 560 000 - 585 000 tonnes of crude oil
• Ixtoc I oil well: 454,000 tons
• Atlantic Empress/Aegean Captain: 287,000 tons
• Fergana Valley: 285,000 tons
• Nowruz oil field: 260,000 tons
• ABT Summer: 260,000 tons
• Castillo de Bellver: 252,000 tons
• The Amoco Cadiz: 223,000 tons
• The Haven: 145,000 tons
• The Odyssey: 132,000 tons