The Ohio State University

onCampus

• Help
• Buckeye Link
• Map
• Find People
• Webmail
• Search

  Search Ohio State Go

Bill Mitsch, Environment and Natural Resources

Posted on | May 19, 2010 | 2,143 views | Comments Off

What devastation has already been caused by the recent oil spill?  Since the oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, an estimated 150,000 barrels of oil has spread out into the Gulf of Mexico, covering 2,000 square miles (about 1/20 the size of the state of Ohio) and the spill continues to spew up to 4,000-5,000 barrels of oil daily (210,000 gallons per day) from a mile below sea level.  The total spill remains less than the 250,000-barrel Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989, but this spill is occurring in a much more productive aquatic ecosystem and could surpass that Alaska size if not controlled.

What kind of devastation is expected? There really is no way to determine the overall effect and there may never be. As summarized by my friend and marine biologist Len Bahr in Louisiana last week, “I don’t think there will be a major effort to quantify impacts until the flow is stopped. Seems pointless.” The spill already has been described by the Sierra Club as “America’s Chernobyl.”

As long as the spill stays at sea, the impact will be less than if it hits a shoreline, as it is now threatening in Louisiana. Coastal wetlands and their birds and wildlife are most vulnerable, yet even they can rebound if the source of oil is stopped.

Even if the spill itself does not hit the shore, for years “tar balls” or oil blobs may suddenly appear to unsuspecting sun bathers along the Gulf Coast beaches. I will never forget seeing those tar balls on the Black Sea in then-Soviet Georgia. (They were explained away as “natural features” by our hosts.)

As strange as it seems, the geopolitical changes will last much longer and may be the biggest effect. Every 20 years, oil spills have galvanized this country and made us realize how vulnerable nature is and how crudely (pun intended) we treat Mother Nature. Oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez or even the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland burning in 1969 — partially from oil — while disasters, led to an environmental “reawakening.” So this effect (is there a silver lining?) of shocking the nation to realize our poor housekeeping and fanatical oil appetite will last for decades.

How long will it take to clean up the spill? BP and Louisiana and federal government officials are at a loss how to control the spill. About 20 percent of the flow is now being captured and oil officials think that within a week or two, perhaps even by the time readers see this publication, the source will be at least be partially controlled. Government officials are skeptical that it can be controlled at all. In the end, that is the only solution to this spill — to cut off the source.

Controlling oil spills after the oil is released is a futile task and ultimately microbial communities will consume the oil as it continues to disperse. Burning has obvious issues of air pollution and toxic smoke. An estimated 90,000 barrels of oil/water mixture have already been collected in the Gulf but that is quite diluted. Once the oil is collected in booms or dispersed by chemicals, there is still the problem of what to do with the collected mass. We speculated during a 17,000-barrel Ohio River oil spill that occurred in Pittsburgh right after I came to Ohio State that the oil booms may actually have caused more harm than good by concentrating the oil on the river bottom.

Nobody can accurately predict how long the oil residuals will remain in the Gulf or on the coastline. There are still oil residuals left in the shorelines from the Exxon Valdez. The one advantage of a warmer climate such as the Gulf of Mexico is that warmer temperatures and rich nutrients coming down the Mississippi River may cause the oil to degrade more rapidly there.

Comments