What are the environmental and economic effects of oil spill? In this article, I aim to identify the primary factors behind oil spills, ranging from human errors and equipment failures to natural disasters and intentional acts. Also, it will examine the far-reaching effects of these spills, such as damage to marine life, coastal ecosystems, and local communities, so we can recognize the urgency of implementing preventive measures.
Understanding Oil Spills and Environmental Pollution
An oil spill is any arbitrary discharge of liquid oil (crude or refined) that pollutes the land, air, and water, hurting the entire ecosystem. An oil spill brings about contamination of the environment and, as such, threatens the health of everything in the affected areas.
On the other hand, environmental pollution is the release of harmful substances into the natural environment that cause adverse changes. It is a careless release of contaminants that harm the environment and human health.
Furthermore, environmental pollution is a global challenge, and its effect on human health and the environment is alarming. It occurs because of careless industrial waste discharge, toxic emissions, oil spills, and other human vices.
Although some pollution is accidental, most of it is a product of human carelessness.
How Oil Spill Happens
Oil spills may occur if any of the following happen: humans are careless, equipment breaks down, occurrences of natural disasters, terrorism, or civil unrest. Also, oil spills on the ocean and rivers usually start in a small area but spread quickly as the river flows.
Consequently, the spread creates problems for the ecosystem and leaves everything within its reach to struggle for survival.
Causes of Oil Spills
Carelessness:
Most oil spills happen as a result of human errors. However, some happen because a few exploration and production companies want to cut costs. For instance, several major oil spills, including the Valdez Oil Spill in March 1989 and the BP Oil Spill of 2010, can be traced to human error.
Human errors may occur if some of your crew members ignore fire safety precautions when carrying out ship-to-ship cargo transfer operations. Also, human error may arise if there is total negligence and disregard for established environmental safety standards.
Equipment Failure:
Drilling equipment can break down without prior notice, which could result in spillage and pollution. You may think a blowout preventer is all it takes to prevent a spill during drilling, but what if the equipment buckle gets installed wrongly? Also, some mechanical failures in refineries may result in oil spills if not addressed on time.
Leakages:
Vessels carrying a large volume of crude oil may leak some of their contents into the sea. Also, pipelines conveying oil to refineries may develop leaks over time, spilling oil into the sea. Furthermore, deterioration of underground and aboveground tanks may result in leaks after some years of usage.
Natural Disasters:
One of the causes of oil spills is natural disasters. For instance, a raging storm may sink an oil tanker, spill its contents, and cause pollution.
Furthermore, an oil seep is a natural oil spillage and an unwanted environmental pollution agent. Oil seeps are not forceful but gentle, yet they can create enormous environmental problems.
Acts of Vandalism:
A terrorist act is another cause of an oil spill. When militants vandalize an oil platform, spillage occurs and invariably pollutes the water within the environment. Also affected are humans and all living organisms in the entire area.
Other Causes of Oil Spill
Ship-to-Ship Transfer Operations:
A failed ship-to-ship oil transfer operation may result in an oil spill. For instance, an accident resulting from bad maneuvering during STS cargo transfer operations will result in spillage. Oil spills may also occur when detaching hoses after transshipment, so operators should train inexperienced crew members to avoid problems.
For more details, check our article on ship-to-ship cargo transfer safety.
Avoidable Illegal Dumping:
Illegal dumping is another cause of spillage and environmental pollution. Some industries have little respect for the environment; therefore, they dump used oil arbitrarily without considering the impact of their actions.
However, this is usually prevalent in countries where there is no strict law protecting the environment.
Regular Maintenance Activities:
Cleaning activities such as crude oil washing are another cause of oil spills that we tend to ignore. Although the amount of oil released into the sea per tanker may be small, it multiplies over time based on the number of vessels washed daily.
Inadequate Leak Detection System:
Another cause of oil spills is improper checks for leaks before vessels sail away from loading terminals. It is better to be proactive, so vessel owners should equip their tankers with oil leak detection systems.
Water Vehicles & Recreational Activities:
Many water vehicles spill oil into the sea while moving from one point to another. Additionally, some sporting activities in lakes and coastal waters result in oil spills by vehicles and equipment.
Environmental and Economic Effects of Oil Spills
Any pollution, including oil spills, affects people and the environment. However, as much as we cannot always prevent accidents, we can all help reduce them.
Oil spillage has several environmental effects, such as damaged ecosystems, economic loss, tourism disruption, and civil unrest.
Problems for the ecosystems:
Oil pollution creates problems for ecosystems, especially aquatic mammals that cannot live in hostile environments. Consequently, it puts them through breeding problems and invariably depletes their population.
Oil pollution problems affect aquatic mammals, land animals, and birds, so none are safe. Many of them get trapped in spills and lose their lives.
Also, all plants in all plants in polluted areas suffer the same fate as aquatic mammals. Spillage prevents them from getting carbon dioxide, a vital ingredient in photosynthesis, thereby endangering their lives.
Economic losses:
Another effect of an oil spill is financial loss. For instance, an oil spill may attract fire and result in the subsequent loss of property and other valuables within the area.
Also, the cost of cleaning up spillage is not cheap, nor is the spilled oil. Furthermore, spillage disrupts economic activities in affected areas and, as such, makes businesses and the government lose revenue.
Disruption of tourism activities:
Another effect of an oil spill is the loss of tourism activities. The essence of going to the beach is to see beautiful environments and have fun, but such sightings are no longer possible because of pollution.
Also, boating and other sporting activities usually suffer setbacks because no tourist wants to swim or sunbathe in a dirty environment.
Hostilities and Civil Unrest:
The host communities may become hostile to the oil-producing companies if they suspect any carelessness in their operations. Also, owners of nearby businesses who have lost their livelihoods may begin to agitate for the relocation of careless oil-spilling companies.
How Spillage Affects its Immediate Environment?
Due to the different means of transporting oil and petroleum products, spillage could occur in water, on land, or below the ground. Let us now examine the effects of each of them on our environment.
Spillage on water:
As a dispersing agent, water increases the rate at which oil spreads and the spillage areas. Consequently, it has more devastating effects on the environment.
Spillage on land:
Oil spilled on the ground does not disperse as much as it does on water but goes deep into the earth, mixes with underground water, and causes plant malnutrition. Also affected by a spillage on land are organisms and some mammals within the affected areas.
Underground spill:
An underground oil spill occurs when an underground storage tank or pipeline leaks. It affects the soil and plants faster because oil contains toxic chemicals.
Furthermore, underground spills pollute underground water, making it unsuitable for human and plant consumption.
How to Prevent Oil Spill
We can prevent oil spills by enforcing environmental laws and regulations. Also, we can prevent oil spills by providing adequate training for oil handlers, prioritizing routine checks on oil equipment, and ensuring maintenance on vessels and storage tanks.
Laws and Regulations:
Some countries have strict legislation against oil pollution, while others don’t, thereby giving room for some producers to pollute the environment.
Therefore, countries with less strict environmental laws should amend their existing laws, while those with better regulations must ensure compliance to win the war against pollution. Also, developing countries must prioritize environmental safety above revenue generation.
Adequate training:
Exploration companies should provide proper training for their drillers if they are committed to preventing oil spills. Also, crew members in charge of ship-to-ship cargo transfer must have the necessary knowledge of cargo transshipment.
To summarize, every employee whose job involves oil drilling, storage, and transportation must be well-trained.
Adequate routine checks on vessels and equipment:
Vessel owners should always check to see if their tankers are in good condition before sailing.
Besides, they should check for leaks and, if possible, adopt leak detection technologies for timely alerts when leakage occurs. Moreover, leak checks will ensure early leak detection and reduce pollution impacts.
Vessels and pipelines maintenance:
It is not enough to check vessels and pipelines for leakages; you should also change ruptured pipes and ensure the vessel’s hulls are in good condition. Also, do whatever you can to make sure the tankers do not break down in the middle of the ocean.
Ways to Clean up Spillage
The current adoption of more pollution-cleaning techniques indicates that industry players are paying attention to curbing environmental pollution. How can we restore a polluted environment to its previous state and make it habitable for humans and animals?
To clean up oil spills, use oil booms, oil dispersants, natural methods, skimming, and manual labour.
Oil Booms:
Pollution-cleaning experts use booms to reduce the possibility of polluting shorelines and other resources. Also, it is a device that helps concentrate oil in thicker surface layers for efficient use of skimmers, vacuums, and other collection methods.
Booms are available in different sizes and shapes, thus making oil recovery easier.
Oil Dispersant:
An oil dispersant is a mixture of emulsifiers and solvents that helps break oil into droplets following an oil spill. In cleaning up spillage, dispersants added to water allow the oil to mix with the water and form molecules.
However, dispersants do not remove oil from the area; they help large globs of oil ‘disperse’ into smaller pieces.
Natural Methods:
This method is economical and easy, but it is the slowest way to clean up an oil spill. It is the process of allowing nature—the sun, wind, weather, and tide—to fizzle out the oil spill.
However, this is not the best method to clean up catastrophic spills.
Skimming:
Skimming involves various mechanisms that physically separate the oil from the water and place the oil into collection tanks. It is most effective in calm waters.
Manual Labour:
The manual labour approach does not require technology but uses hand tools such as spades, shovels, rakes, hoses, pumps, vacuum trucks, and other equipment. However, it is time-consuming, energy-consuming, and labour-intensive.
FAQs
What is an oil spill? An oil spill refers to the discharge of liquid petroleum hydrocarbons into the environment, usually in water bodies like oceans, rivers, or lakes. It can occur due to accidents involving oil tankers, pipelines, offshore drilling rigs, or other sources of oil.
What causes oil spills? It can occur due to accidents during oil transportation, equipment failures, natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes, intentional oil dumping, or human error during oil extraction or production activities.
What are the environmental impacts of an oil spill? Oil spills can have severe environmental consequences. The spilled oil can harm marine and terrestrial ecosystems, leading to the death of plants, animals, and aquatic organisms. Also, it can contaminate water sources, disrupt the food chain, damage habitats, and affect the overall biodiversity of the affected area.
Can oil spills be prevented? While it is impossible to eliminate oil spills, preventive measures can significantly reduce their likelihood and severity. These measures include implementing stringent safety regulations, conducting regular maintenance and inspections of oil transportation infrastructure, training personnel in emergency response procedures, and promoting environmentally responsible practices in the oil industry.
What measures are in place to respond to oil spills? Many countries have established response systems, such as dedicated agencies or organizations responsible for spill response, to address oil spills. Also, some notable countries have contingency plans outlining procedures for different scenarios and equipment stockpiles for rapid deployment during emergencies. Furthermore, international agreements and protocols also exist to facilitate cooperation and assistance in the event of transboundary oil spills.