Oil spills can occur due to negligence, equipment failure, natural disasters, or deliberate dumping. They can be devastating to the environment and wildlife. Cleaning methods include in situ burning, booms, skimmers, and chemical dispersants. Large spills can be very expensive to clean up and fines are severe. The Exxon Valdez spill prompted increased regulations, but spills still occur, such as the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.
Many thousands of small oil spills occur every year. Oil spills can occur due to negligence, equipment failure, natural disasters, or deliberate dumping. These spills can be devastating to the environment and wildlife surrounding the epicenter of the spill. Thankfully, oil molecules are hydrophobic, meaning they mostly float on the surface of the water, making cleaning with boats at least theoretically possible.
When oil spills occur, the oil initially remains concentrated, but begins to spread rapidly in all directions over time, producing an oil spill. If oil spills are detected early, the cleanup technique of burning in place, called in situ burning, can be used. This is the most benign cleaning method, but also one of the most rarely used methods because the oil must be at least 0.12 inches (3 mm) thick on the surface of the water to maintain a self-sustaining burn and oil spills will settle. they quickly spread to thinner sizes.
A boom, a kind of corral that floats on the surface of the water, can be used to contain oil spills and artificially increase their thickness. Special flame retardant rods are used in combination with in situ burning. When in situ burning is not feasible due to the thickness of the spill, booms are used to contain the oil so skimmers, special boats with absorbent plastics or vacuums can be used.
When cleaning with booms or skimmers is not practical, chemical dispersants can be used. Chemical dispersants are used to break down stray oil and reduce its impact on beaches and aquatic wildlife.
Cleaning up large oil spills can be very expensive, tens or hundreds of millions of US dollars. Fines for spills are usually just as severe. When an oil spill spreads over a large area, it forms a sheen, a very thin layer of rainbow-colored oil on the surface of the water.
One of the largest oil spills in history was the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska. About 25 percent of the ship’s 50 million gallons of oil was spilled, equivalent to about 125 Olympic-size swimming pools, and an estimated 250,000 birds died as a result of the accident. The event prompted the US government to further increase the severity of its fines and regulations aimed at preventing oil spills. Despite this, oil spills still occur; in 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to a spill of more than 205 million gallons, according to scientific estimates.
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