The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred in the location of Gulf of Mexico on April 20th of 2010 due to an explosion which took place on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig. Transocean, the operator and owner of the oil rig, is an offshore-oil-drilling company. However, it had been leased by BP Oil Company. A natural gas caused the blasting which caused a wellhead blowout. The blowout resulted in the worst marine oil spill in the history. Despite attempts to put a temporary seal to prevent the further oil spill, the equipment malfunctioned. The oil the contamination extended spill resulted in contamination of marine water. The contamination extended thousands of kilometres in the Gulf of Mexico. A clean up exercise was mobilised. To clean up the oil which had contaminated the sea, oil dispersants were used. Up to 1.8 million oil dispersants were used. The oil dispersants were pumped directly into the leaking oil. Further booms to the under bed where corral portions were located were deployed there where the oil contained there were syphoned off and burned. However, as the oil advanced to the Louisiana beaches, a manual method of oil cleaning was employed. The method was very difficult because of the natural delicate plant life in the topography. Eventually, approximately 1170km of shoreline was contaminated covering up to beaches of Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
An assessment of the impact of the oil spill disaster showed that it cause a significant environmental, social, and economic impact. The oil spill had a huge negative impact on the ecosystem which included birds, oysters, seabirds, turtles, marine mammals, fish species, sea grasses, and other vegetative matter. The oil spill also affected both fishing and tourism industry (NRDC, 2015). Studies by White et al. (2012) showed that the oil spill resulted in the loss of the coral community in the affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The contamination also resulted in a huge economic loss and massive unemployment since many people depended on the beach for their livelihood. Investigations carried out by Grattan et al. (2011) showed that many people were psychologically affected by the oil spill. Loss of income mainly caused the psychological impacts. Besides economic impacts on the fishing community (McCrea-Strub et al., 2011), other economic activities like tourism were largely affected. Following the oil leak, legal action was taken against oil giant BP, which pleaded guilty to fourteen counts of criminal charges.BP was penalised, and it agreed to pay settlements to the parties affected by the oil spill.
When an oil spill occurs, there are some methods which can be employed to carry out a cleanup to protect sensitive locations from being affected by the advancing oil slick. Some of the most common equipment used are booms while one of the most commonly employed tactics is in situ burning. Skimmers and dispersants are also employed (NOAA, 2016). Booms are physical floating materials which act as barriers to advancing oil. The materials can be manufactured from metals, plastics, or any other materials. The barriers not only slow down the speed of advancing oil but they also keep it contained. Booms are deployed by specialised teams using mooring systems such as land lines and anchors. Three types of booms can be used: the hard boom, the sorbent boom, and the fire boom. Skimmers are equipment, usually boats, which are used to remove oil contaminants on the surface of the water before it advances to the sensitive locations on the coastline. At times, two boats can be used to tow a boom, and once the oil has been contained in a particular location, it is then syphoned into the boats. In relatively calm weather and when oil is still fresh, in situ burning technique can be used. This is where oil contained in a boom or advancing slick is ignited before reaching sensitive locations of the shoreline. However, the boom needs to be fire-proof. Another technique involves the use of chemicals known as dispersants. Dispersants are known to disperse oil molecules so that a little or none floats on the water surface. To apply dispersants, boats or aircraft are used to spray the chemical directly on the surface of advancing slick. There are naturally occurring microbes which can play a significant role in oil biodegradation. Studies by Hazen et al. (2010) suggest that bacteria residing in the deep waters responded and helped in the removal of the oil spill by biodegradation. The oil particles helped to enrich the indigenous bacteria residing on the ocean floor. Degradation and resilience were observed to have taken place by Silliman et al. (2012) who found out that some of the oil spills were degraded naturally in the ecosystem and that some vegetation exhibited signs of resistance to the oil.
References
Grattan, L. M., Roberts, S., Mahan Jr, W. T., McLaughlin, P. K., Otwell, W. S., & Morris Jr, J. G. (2011). The early psychological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Florida and Alabama communities. Environmental Health Perspectives, 119(6), 838.
Hazen, T. C., Dubinsky, E. A., DeSantis, T. Z., Andersen, G. L., Piceno, Y. M., Singh, N., & Stringfellow, W. T. (2010). Deep-sea oil plume enriches indigenous oil-degrading bacteria. Science, 330(6001), 204-208.
McCrea-Strub, A., Kleisner, K., Sumaila, U. R., Swartz, W., Watson, R., Zeller, D., & Pauly, D. (2011). The potential impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. Fisheries, 36(7), 332-336.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (n.d.). Description of the Hydrologic Cycle. Retrieved from: http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/info/water_cycle/hydrology.cgi
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2016). Spill Containment Methods. Retrieved from: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/spill-containment-methods.html
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). (2015).Summary of Information concerning the Ecological and Economic Impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster. Retrieved from: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/gulfspill-impacts-summary-IP.pdf
Silliman, B. R., van de Koppel, J., McCoy, M. W., Diller, J., Kasozi, G. N., Earl, K., & Zimmerman, A. R. (2012). Degradation and resilience in Louisiana salt marshes after the BP–Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(28), 11234-11239.
White, H. K., Hsing, P. Y., Cho, W., Shank, T. M., Cordes, E. E., Quattrini, A. M., & Brooks, J. M. (2012). The impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on a deep-water coral community in the Gulf of Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(50), 20303-20308.
