Oil Spills in Our Environment
1. Sources of petroleum reaching the ocean:
a. Natural-200,000 metric tons per year
b. Marine Transportation-more than 10,000 accidents per
year in US
waters
1. ballast discharge is the most significant
2. offshore oil exploration and production-accounts for 40,000-60,000
tons per year (NSF)
a. drilling muds-mix of clay and
weighting agent in water or oil base
used to
lubricate the bit and offset pressure during drilling
b. produced water-emanates with
oil and gas from wells (at equal
volumes
with oil & gas) It is treated and discharged. 1500 to 3000 tons
of hydrocarbons
released from 50 billion L of produced water each year.
c. municipal and industrial waste
waters-municipal more significant
than industrial,
200,000 tons of municipal sewage waste discharged into
coastal
waters in 1985
1. What happens when oil invades the marine environment?
a. Weathering-most significant process
1. Spreading and Drifting-spilled
oil first spreads horizontally in the
direction
of the wind and surface currents-more rapidly in warm waters
2. Evaporation-most important process
for the first days
3. Dissolution-removes 2-3% of a
spill
4. Dispersion and Emulsion Formation-the
most important process after
evaporation
a. chocolate
mousse-emulsion of oil and water & is difficult to remove
(wont' burn)
5. Photochemical Reactions-solar
energy reacts with the oil yielding
new, more
toxic compounds
6. Biodegradation-marine bacteria
and fungi degrade and remove
hydrocarbons
from surface, water column, and sediments.
7. Deposition of sediments-heavier
oil compounds sink and persist for
long periods
in sediment
a. Oil Dispersants-chemicals
disperse oil into the water column.
1. Contain surfactants, solvents, stabilizing agents
2. Applied by hand, boat or aircraft
8. May cause additional toxicity
and unacceptable large amounts would
be necessary
for major spills
a. Burning-some
oil can be successfully burned. May emit pollutants
1. How does oil affect marine organisms?
a. Most extensive damage is where oil is deposited
1. Immediate damage from smothering
and drowning
2. Barnacles and surf grasses heavily
affected
3. More damage to surface organisms
than to bottom dwellers
4. Federal and State surveys showed
no damage to fish populations in SB
spill-much
is unknown about fish patterns and numbers
5. Birds suffer extensive damage
< 1% of treated birds live
6. Mammals
a. fur seals,
otters and polar bears groom to maintain insulation and
ingest oil
b. inhale
volatile hydrocarbons of freshly spilled oil. These cause
inflamed mucous membranes, lung congestion, and pneumonia
c. tissue
and liver damage
1. Exxon's Valdez oil spill · March 24, 1989 the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground
on Bligh Reef in
North East Prince William Sound
· The supertanker was only 2 years old, cost $125 million
and was
equipped with collision avoidance radar, navigational
aids, and depth
finders
· Commander was Captain Joseph Hazelwood, a 20-year veteran
with Exxon
and had commanded the Valdez for 20 months.
· Convicted of driving under the
influence of alcohol in 1985 and
September 1988; license revoked 3 times in 5
years. Exxon was aware of
his drinking problems and he entered a treatment
center. At the time of
the tanker accident, he could not legally drive
an automobile but he
was licensed to command the Valdez
· Hazelwood's blood alcohol level was .06, 9 hours after
the incident
(.04 is the highest acceptable level by Coast
Guard)
· EXXON VALDEZ:
· Largest oil spill in the US -11.2
million gallons spilled into the
sea (1/5th of the oil
on the tanker)
· After one day the spill was eight
miles long and 4 miles wide
· Weather calm for 2 days-then strong
winds dispersed oil
· Oil came ashore along the Alaskan
Peninsula and Southern part of the
Kodiak Archipelago
· Covered 25,000 sq. km. (>1,000
sq. mi.)
· 1,000 miles of soiled shoreline
in Kenai peninsula and Kodiak region
· Death toll: > 35,000 sea birds,
10,000 otters, 16 whales, 147 bald
eagles and thousands
of fish (today, only the river otter and bald
eagles are listed as
recovered from the spill)
· Scientist estimated:
· 39% of the spilled oil evaporated
· 40% deposited on beaches (452
miles of soiled beaches on the Prince
William Sound)
· 25% was beached on the Gulf or
lost at sea
· 3 Phases of Work:
1. Response: vessel salvage, beach
surveys and assessments, tracking
and skimming
surface oil, wildlife cleanup
· Cleanup
involved over 11,000 people and 1,400 marine vessels
· Techniques:
burning, chemical dispersents, bioremediation and manual
removal
· 8.5% oil
recovered by skimming
· 5-8% of
oil recovered by beach cleanup
· 90% of
oil in surface beach sediment was naturally removed during the
winter of 89-90
· by 1992
natural processes and cleanup had eliminated most all of
surface oil
· official
conclusion of shoreline oil cleanup: June 10, 1992 (took 3
years and more than $2 billion)
1. Damage Assessment: $100 million devoted to over 60 studies
· Immediate injury, long term effects on populations, sub-lethal
effects, ecosystem-wide effects and habitat
degradation
· Settlement: October 8, 1991:
· Exxon pays state of Alaska and US govt. $100 mil over
10 yr period
(used for restoration)
· Exxon pays $250 mill in fines:
· $50 mill Fed. Restitution
· $50 mill in State restitution
· $125 mill forgiven debt due to Exxon's cooperation
· $12 mill North American Wetland Conservation Fund
· $13 mill Victims of Crime Act
1. Restoration: funds must be used for restoration, replacement,
enhancing or acquiring equivalent to the injured natural resources
Santa Barbara Oil "Blowout"
· Jan. 29, 1969
· Union Oil platform stationed 6 miles off the Summerland
coast
· Employees replacing drill bit when mud level goes dangerously
low
· Natural gas blowout lasted 13 min before capping, high
pressure
buildup results in 5 breaks along fault line
on ocean floor, releasing
oil and gas from deep within the earth
· More than 3 million gallons of crude oil released into
the Santa
Barbara channel in the first 100 days
· spread 800 sq mi, soiling 35 miles of coastline
· 3,686 birds die
· Incident causes surge of environmental activism
ECONOMIC COST OF SB SPILL
Union Oil & Partners
$4,887,000
Beach cleanup
$3,600,000
Oil well control efforts
$200,000 = 10,487,000
Oil collection efforts
$382,000
US Dept Interior
State of CA
$200,000
County of SB
$57,200
Damage to fish industry
$804,000
Property value loss
$1,197,000
Bird loss
$7,400
Intertidal plant & animal damage
between $1,000 & $25,000
Value of lost oil
$130,000
Recreational value loss
$3,150,000
total
$16,439,850
· Summary:
· The costs of oil spills are extremely high
· Must consider several factors:
· Direct cleanup costs
· Tourism loss
· Commercial fishing loss
· Decline in property values
· Marine environment loss
· Loss of oil reserves
· Loss of recreational opportunities for population
Resources:
Buchholz, R. A., 1998, Principles of environmental management, 2nd ed.,
Prentice Hall, NJ
Easton R., 1972, "Black tide", Delacorte Press, NY
Geraci, J. & St.Aubin, D., 1990, Sea mammals and oil: confronting the
risks, Academic Press, SD, CA
Mead W. J. & Sorensen P.E., 1970, Santa Barbara Oil Symposium, "The
economic cost of the Santa Barbara oil spill"
www.earthbase.org/home/timeline/1989/exxon/
www.oilspill.state.ak.us
ENERGY: NUCLEAR
1. History:
- Nuclear age began in 1942 when Enrico Fermi made a chain
reaction in
a pile of uranium at the University of Chicago
(radioactivity in
uranium was discovered in 1896 by Frenchman,
Becquerel)
- Einstein publishes his theory of relativity E=mc2
- U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August
6, 1945 (over
100,000 fatalities)
- U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, August 9,
1945 (over
40,000 fatalities)
- In 60's and early 70's utility companies build nuclear
plants and by
1975- 53 plants in the US were producing 9%
of the nation's electricity
- Another 170 plants were in the development stage. Estimates
of over
1,000 nuclear plants by the turn of the century
- Since 1975 utility companies stopped ordering plants and
existing
orders were cancelled (the last order
for a plant was in 1974 and was
subsequently cancelled)
- Only 110 operating nuclear plants in existence in US by
end of 1996,
generating about 20% of US electricity.
2. Matter: anything that occupies space and has mass(gas, liquid,
solid) All matter is composed of:
- Elements: 92 naturally occurring, 14 more created by physicists
(C,
H, S, N, P, etc) elements are made up of:
- Atoms: The smallest unit of matter and are composed of:
- Protons (+charged) & neutrons (neutral charge)in a
nucleus
- Electrons (-charged) outside the nucleus
- Atomic number: the number of protons in the nucleus (
H=1, C=6, U=92)
- Atomic mass: the total number of protons and neutrons
in the nucleus
- Oxygen has 8 protons and 8 neutrons, its atomic number
is 8 and its
mass is 16
- U=235[92 protons and 143 neutrons})
- Isotopes: different forms of an element that have the
same atomic
number but a different mass because the number
of neutrons is changed.
Example hydrogen-1, hydrogen-2 (deuterium),
and hydrogen-3(tritium)
- Some isotopes are unstable and release particles or rays
called
radioactive emissions
- Two kinds of reactions:
- Chemical: common reactions that change how atoms are arranged
into
molecules but do not change the atoms.
Example: photosynthesis
6CO2 + 12H2O + sunlight + chlorophyll ® C6H1206
+ 6O2 + 6H20
- Nuclear: changes the element of an atom (produces ~10
million times
the energy than is achieved with chemical reactions)
- Uranium has two isotopes: U-235 & U-238
- Natural uranium ore from mines contains more than 100X
as much U-238
as U-235 (natural uranium sources in US,
S. Africa, Australia, Canada,
Nigeria have between 270-2400 thousand tons
each and other smaller
sources are found in France, Argentina, India,
Brazil
- Nuclear reactors use U-235 and plutonium-239 as fuel
- Nuclei of large atoms are split into two smaller atoms
of a different
element by a process called fission (the mass
of the first element is
larger than the products and the loss of mass
is converted to energy
E=mc2)
- U-235 will undergo fission but U-238 will not
- A neutron collides with an atom of U-235 and it becomes
U-236, which
is very unstable and will undergo fission into
two smaller atoms. This
reaction gives off more neutrons that produce
a chain reaction causing
an amplified, domino effect
- Nuclear reactors are designed to control the amplification
of fission
with neutron absorbing materials; called
a control rod
- Enriched U-235 is made into pellets that are loaded into
fuel rods.
Many fuel rods are closely placed together
to form a reactor core
inside a water containing vessel
- Heat from the reactor is used to boil water to provide
steam to turn
turbines
- The fission of one pound of uranium releases as much energy
as
burning 50 tons of coal
- Radioactive wastes are produced by nuclear fission
- When an element like uranium goes through fission, the
products are
smaller, lighter elements such as
iodine, strontium, cobalt (over 30
elements). They are unstable isotopes
(radioisotopes) of the original
atom and become stable by emitting
subatomic particles or high-energy
radiation (gamma rays) This is called
radioactive emission
- Low level radioactive waste are solids, liquids,
or gases that give
off small amounts of ionizing radiation
- Glassware, tools, paper, clothing that have been
exposed to
radiation from power plants, hospitals,
labs, universities and
industries
- High level radioactive waste gives off large amounts of
ionizing
radiation. Most are spent fuel rods
from nuclear plants and wastes from
the military
- Methods for disposing:
- Deep burial
- Out into space
- Bury under Antarctica or Greenland
ice
- Dump into the ocean
- Change into less harmful isotopes
- DOE has built a 1.5 billion dollar waste isolation
pilot plant in
salt caves in Southwestern New Mexico
over 2100 feet below the desert
for plutonium wastes from nuclear
weapons plants and from dismantled
warheads. Strong opposition brought
suit and EPA forces DOE to show the
facility will function appropriately
for 10,000 years. The situation is
at a stalemate
- Yucca Mountain, Nevada been selected for the nations
only commercial
storing of wastes. Nevada has a
law prohibiting the storage of high
level radioactive waste. Supreme
Court has ruled Nevada must continue
with the plan. Thousands of tons
of nuclear wastes will be shipped by
train or truck through populated
areas across the country by the year
2010.
- Russian practices over the last 30 years:
- Billions of gallons of liquid
wastes were pumped underground without
protective
containers
- Officials claim areas are protected
by layers of clay and shale, but
admit to
leakage
- Dump wastes into the ocean more
than double the amount of 12 other
nuclear
nations
- Underground and underwater dumping
continue in Russia due to lack of
alternative
ARGUMENTS TO SUPPORT NUCLEAR POWER:
- Most energy produced from material-U235 can produce more than a
million times more energy than the same amount of coal
- Costs are competitive with coal
- Abundance of uranium
- By-produce, plutonium can also be used as fuel
- Small amount of waste (although, more than 30,000 metric tons of
spent fuel is stored at power plants and this amount is
expected to
rise to over 50,000 tons by the year 2005)
ARGUMENTS AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER:
- Waste disposal unsolved
- Nuclear reactors produce plutonium, which is used to make bombs
- Accidents and the release of radioactive emissions into the
environment
- Possible accidents / terrorism when materials and wastes are
transported on our freeways and R/R
- Nuclear power plant life is roughly 30 years
- Very expensive to dismantle
CASE STUDY: CHERNOBYL
- April 26, 1986: testing went wrong at the Chernobyl nuclear plant,
the reactor began to heat up, and operators began an emergency
shutdown
(takes about 20 seconds)
- Seven seconds after shutdown, a huge chemical explosion took place in
the reactor releasing a column of radioactive steam and
debris high
into the atmosphere-the equivalent to 10 Hiroshima bombs
- More than 30 people were immediately killed-the number of subsequent
deaths will reach the hundreds of thousands
- Even after cleanup the area within 300 meters shows 30 to 50 times
the normal dose of gamma radiation
- 6,000 people currently work at Chernobyl-the two remaining reactors
are still used to produce energy
THREE-MILE ISLAND (TMI)
- March 28, 1979: The US experienced its worse nuclear disaster
- Plant was shut down after a pump failed in the reactor cooling system
- Pressure relief valve opens and releases excess pressure and steam,
but gets stuck open allowing the coolant water to evaporate
- Without cooling water the temperatures increased, uranium fuel melted
to the bottom of the reactor vessel
- More water was added when the lack of coolant water was
discovered-the added water was cold-and shattered the hot
fuel
rods-"partial meltdown"
- Reactor was badly damaged-cleanup costs as much as building a new one
- A second reactor at the site is currently in use
- TMI accident prompted new safety measures and evacuation plans
THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON LIVING ORGANISMS
- Changes in DNA:
- Mutations
- When the mutation occurs in the reproductive cells the mutation is
passed on to the next generation
- Mutations that occur in the somatic cells of the body may change the
normal functioning of the cell
- A rem is the unit to measure doses of radiation
- 100 rems may cause nausea, vomiting, headache and the loss of WBC
- >300 rems may cause temporary hair loss, damage to nerve cells,
digestive tract cells, severe loss of WBC and the loss of
blood
platelets (responsible for clotting)
- >450 rems half of the exposed people will die and all will die with
doses of 800 rems
- death occurs from 2-14 days