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bp oil spill essay'
overview of the bp oil spill in the gulf
bp oil spill essay
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In 2010, there was a huge oil spill near the Gulf of Mexico that we now know as the BP Oil Spill today. The Spill sent about 170 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill killed 11 men aboard the deep-water Horizon. The BP Oil Spill impacted the environment very negatively. There were different types of environmental impact as a result of the Oil Spill, but the two that grabbed my attention the most are the Polluted Air and the Contaminated Food Chain. The first impact that grabbed my attention was the Polluted Air. Because of the Oil Spill, the air around the surroundings neighborhoods was polluted. All the lightest chemicals in the oil that had spill evaporated within hours of the incidence forming air pollution particles. These particles that are in the air poses significant threats to the human health from being inhaled. The chemical found in the particles that was formed is known as Volatile, which has been known to cause respiratory irritation and central nervous system depression (Solomon & Janssen, 2010). The second impact that grabbed my attention was the contamination of the food chain, specifically the food chain of sea animals that lives near the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists found traces of oil in zooplanktons; this could only mean that the sea creature has had contact with the spilled oil. According to the Staff at Houston Business Journal (2012), “Baby fish and shrimp feed on the tiny, drifting zooplankton, and then introduce contamination and pollution to the larger sea creatures in the food web.” With these findings, it isn’t going to take long before the baby fishes become grown and caught by fishermen and before we know it, it’s on our dinner plate. And here we are eating fishes w... ... middle of paper ... ...the action of drilling is going on because so that if the same incident ever happen again, their will be more men to take the first aid action in trying to stop the leak. Also maybe the company should change the type of pipe they are using to engage in transferring the drilled oil because it might be the material used to make the pipe that is weaken and ended up causing the oil company billions of dollars. Works Cited HARTOGS, J. (2013, June 13). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-years-after-bp-oil-spill-active-clean-up-ends-in-three-states/ Solomon, G., & Janssen, S. (2010). Health effects of the gulf oil spill. JAMA, 304(10), 1118-1119. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.1254 Staff. (2012, March 21). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2012/03/21/bp-oil-spill-contaminated-food-chain.html?page=all
“ Effects of Oil Spills on Marine and Coastal Wildlife” Holly K. Ober. WEB. 19 May 2014
Kovats, Sari et al. “The Health Implications of Fracking.” Lancet 383.9919 (2014): 757– 8. Web.
British Petroleum (“BP”) is the company that is being blamed for the incident. Employing 80,000 people, BP is an international oil company that puts different technology to use for finding oil and gas under the Earth’s surface. One of the oilrigs, Deepwater Horizon has drilled 35,000 ft. making it to be the deepest drilling of oil and gas (Walsh). Deepwater Horizon was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip. After the explosion, helicopters searched for 11 crewmembers that reported missing. 17 people were injured (BP Internal Investigation Team). A day later, the rig was found upside down (BP Oil Spill Timeline). The cost to clean up the damage is approximately $760 million (Walsh).
An unnatural disaster that affected the ecosystem of Louisiana was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The BP (British Petroleum) oil s...
April, 20th 2010; The Gulf of Mexico was exquisite, marvelous, and teeming with life. An ominous and enormous drilling rig cruised across the sea. The vessel was collectedly searching for oil. The crew found a massive oiling spot, buried underneath the ocean. The crew hastily begins drilling without safety precautions, ignoring local wildlife and habitats nearby. After eliciting oil from underneath the ocean; the crew recklessly begun siphoning cement into the gaping hole. Suddenly, a vociferous boom arises from the ocean floor; the malodorous scent filled the air, as heaps of oil drifted to the surface. This oil polluted oblivious animals, looming coral and trees, and alluring shores; turning the once exquisite coast into a mung, oily marsh. Do you want more oil-based catastrophes such as the BP Oil Spill, to continue ratifying the environment?
On April 20, 2010, the Macondo wellhead BP pipe leaked crude oil and gas on the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico 42 miles off the Louisiana coast (Gulf Oil Spill). This oil spill is known as the largest spill in U.S. history. The pipe was located 5,000 feet underwater where there are temperatures just above freezing and extremely high pressures (Gulf Oil Spill). Oil spewed from this pipe non-stop for 87 days (Gulf Oil Spill). About twenty percent of it ended up on the ocean floor or on the surface (Gulf Oil Spill). Since it’s hydrophobic, the oil on the surface spreads out and forms slicks. These slicks greatly affect ecosystems and animals. The oil that didn’t end up on the floor or surface hovered in the middle of the ocean, forming layers of oil (Gulf Oil Spill). All 200 million gallons of crude oil mixed throughout the ocean and affected coastal and deep-sea sediments (Gulf Oil Spill). Although the pipe was capped on July 15, 2010 (Gulf Oil Spill), much of the oil still remains on the Gulf floor today.
On April 20, 2010, the Gulf of Mexico experienced a disaster unprecedented in scale and environmental impact. Fifty miles off the coast of Louisiana in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a BP drilling rig suffered an explosion that claimed eleven lives and caused the rig to sink over 5000 ft. to the sea bed floor. This was the beginning of the BP oil spill which spanned over eighty seven days, releasing an approximate 2.3 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the flow of oil into the Gulf was contained July 15, 2010, the lasting effects of the oil spill on the environment continue to be devastating and widespread. (Kirkwood 1)
Oil spills, no matter large or small, have long been of concern to pollution control authorities in this country. Due to its destructive nature, once an area has been contaminated by oil, the whole character of the environment is changed. When it has encountered something solid to cling to, whether it be a beach, a rock, the feathers of a duck or gull, or a bather’s hair, it does not readily let go (Stanley, 1969). By its nature o...
These cumulative issues in turn allowed for oil to gather within the oil rig deck thus ultimately setting the rig aflame.Furthermore, Newman later admitted to knowing that Transocean recorded a dilemma in assuring safety with a track record exemplifying a total of four workers being killed in previous 2009 rig accidents. Thomas Roth, a senior Halliburton executive in charge of cementing operations during the period of the spill, confirmed that well design alongside other external factors resulted in “the cement placement to be a job that would have a low probability of success” (Krauss,Meier). Even with conducted stability tests on cement samples and proceeding investigations clearing indicating that the cement was not stable, BP accused Halliburton of destroying evidence of its cement testing in order to continue through with cement placement despite the risks.Finally, under the Clean Water Act, fines could range from $1,100 for every barrel spilled through simple negligence to as much as $4,300 a barrel if gross negligence is
On April 20th 2010, the Deepwater Horizon operated under Transocean exploded causing an accumulated amount of 4.9 million barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico (US Coast Guard). In the explosion itself only 11 were killed and 17 were injured but the overall damage resulted in the ecosystem declining; killing many species of animals, and the decline in health in the
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has had an extremely negative effect on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem. The oil spread across the gulf contaminating any living organism that came into direct or indirect contact with it. The oil cuts off the ability of oxygen from the air to move into the water which directly harms fish and other marine wildlife that require that oxygen. The dispersant that the BP is using to try and break up the oil moves the slick into the entire water column which contaminates the ocean floor which would most likely not have seen any damage if it wasn’t for the use of these dispersants. More than 400 species that live in the Gulf Islands and marshlands are at risk and as of November 2 s...
Winston A, 2010, Five Lessons from the BP Oil Spill, Harvard Business Review, accessed 1 April 2014,
In an article from the website thinkprogress.com by Annie-Rose Strausser, she stated “The people who worked to clean up the Gulf of Mexico after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill are at an increased risk of getting cancer, leukemia, and a host of other illnesses, according to a new study released Tuesday in the American Journal of Medicine”. But the residence of the region are also affected by this environmental nightmare which has caused more untimely medical conditions as well as an increase in the morality rate in the
According to an online article from Thought Company, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill polluted the waters of Prince William Sound, coated more than a thousand miles of pristine coastline and killed hundreds of thousands of birds, fish, and animals. This crisis has become a symbol of human-caused environmental disasters all over the world. Many years after the accident, and despite billions of dollars spent on cleanup efforts, crude oil can still be found under the rocks and sand on the beaches of southwest Alaska, and the effects of the spill are still apparent in the lasting damage done to many native species. (West, 2017) This specific incident was a major crisis that acted as a prodrome for the oil industry. For the purpose of this assignment it is important that we take a look at the details of this event. From there, we will look at how Exxon handled the
More than 20 percent of the oil that was spilled may have possibly ended up in and on top of the seafloor, this has damaged deep-sea corals and also it has damaged a few other ecosystems. Due to the