April 27, 2010
UPDATED: The World’s Worst Oil Spills
A sample from an oil spill is taken from Alcatraz Island (Credit: NPS/Craig Glassner)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about oil spills. At the beginning of the month, a Chinese freighter ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, grinding a couple miles coral into dust and leaking oil along the way. A couple of weeks ago came news of a new study showing that oil left behind by the Exxon Valdez disaster 17 years ago can still be found buried in the silt and sand of the intertidal zone, prime feeding territory for a host of wildlife, including sea otters and ducks. Then, last week, an explosion destroyed an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and killed 11 workers. The oil pouring from the drill hole—42,000 210,000 gallons per day—has created a slick half the size of Indiana and endangers coastlines from Florida to Louisiana.
The oil company BP has sent robots to plug up the hole—it’s too deep to send divers—but it could be months before the leak stops. At its current rate, the hole would have to spew oil for about 292 58 days to surpass the Exxon Valdez disaster as the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But the Exxon Valdez spill wasn’t all that big in historical terms; it’s only 34th or 35th on the list of the worst spills of all time globally. The current Gulf spill would have to flow for 2,143 429 days to make the top three:
3) July 19, 1979: Two oil tankers, the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain, collided off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. The Aegean Captain managed to contain the damage and was towed to port, though it spilled a small amount of oil along the way. The Atlantic Empress, however, was towed out to sea in flames, spilling its oil until it sank on August 3. An estimated 90 million gallons of oil were released into the ocean as a result of the collision.
2) June 3, 1979: The Ixtoc I exploratory oil well off the coast of Mexico in the Gulf blew out and began to leak. When the oil ignited, the platform above collapsed. Attempts to seal the well were unsuccessful until March 23, 1980. A total of 140 million gallons of oil—at a rate of 42,000 to 126,000 gallons per day—was dispersed into the Gulf of Mexico.
1) January 19, 1991: As Iraqi troops left Kuwait, they opened the taps on an offshore oil terminal and several oil tankers, spilling some 380 to 520 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf. They created an oil slick 4,000 square miles in size and 4 inches thick. Despite the slick’s record size, a UNESCO report found little lasting environmental damage.
Note: This post was updated on Thursday, April 29 following news that the oil leak was five times worse than originally thought.
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Wow–I don’t envy the Coast Guard having to make the decision involving a tradeoff between water/land pollution and air pollution.
It’s been bugging me for a few days, so I want to point out that oil is measured in barrels, not gallons. It looks pretty bad to see the wrong units in the major local newspaper of the energy capital of the world!
Yes, oil is measured in barrels (or at least sold by that measure), but the average person likely has no idea how much a barrel is. That’s why I, and probably most of the media, report the spill in gallons, a known quantity.
[...] • Smithsonian’s Surprising Science: The World’s Worst Oil Spills » [...]
[...] barrels a day. (If that turns out to be the true rate, Deepwater Horizon would have become the worst oil spill in U.S. history days ago). What will be the effect of all that oil on sea [...]
Oil Spill Eater II
Testing of OSE II by Dr. Tsao of British Petroleum
David Tsao, Ph.D
BioChem Strike Team Leader; Deepwater Horizon
Regarding the Effectiveness of OSE II Remediating Oil from Deepwater Horizon, Blow Out, Gulf of Mexico
The major oil company British Petroleum tested OSEI Corporation’s product called Oil Spill Eater II (OSE II) at Louisiana State University from November 2010 through January 2011. Relevant sections of BP’s BCST (Bio Chem Strike Team) test results and summary “interim report” are attached.
British Petroleum formed a group named the Bio Chem Strike Team (BCST). Under the direction of Dr. Tsao, BCST was established in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident by the Alternative Response Technology (ART) program. The BCST consisted of experts from BP, LSU, LDEQ (Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality), USCG (U.S. Coast Guard), OSPR (California), SCAT, and highly experienced oil spill response consultants. Furthermore, BCST operated in conjunction with advice from EPA and NOAA.
OSE II was then slated for testing and the tests were started in November of 2010, and concluded in January of 2011. The tests were very thorough and measured several pertinent aspects in regards to remediating hydrocarbons/oil. The tests were conducted with Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry EPA test procedures. Bacteria counts, as well as dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorous levels were measured, and PAH and Alkane degradation was quantified.
The results from the tests of OSE II were excellent!
OSE II showed a great ability in the closed laboratory test to be able to remediate PAH’s, as well as the Alkanes. In fact, by the conclusion of the testing time frame, OSE II had remediated 80% of both components of the oil released by BP which ended up in Bay Jimmy, Louisiana. Based on total concentration levels of the PAH’s OSE II actually remediated 200 %of the PAH’s or 162% of the total of both oil fractions since the Alkanes and PAH’s were measured on a 100% basis for each.
This test by a major oil company is the second major testing of OSE II on two of the largest spills on water in the history of planet Earth caused by Man. Exxon tested OSE II in 1989 at Florham Park, New Jersey and discovered OSE II was the most effective product in the world by a factor of better than 90% on the North Slope Alaskan Crude oil from the Valdez spill.
BP has now successfully tested OSE II on their spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is estimated, at this time, to be over 600,000,000 gallons of oil spilled.
Dr. Tsao wrote in his report “After nearly one year since the Deepwater Horizon spill, residual weathered oil remains in many locations. The need for a field trial to establish operational criteria for final bioremediation work plans should be initiated before early Spring 2011.”
The OSEI Corporation has alerted BP that, after over 16,000 spill clean ups in the past 21½ years, the logistics in regard to the successful application of OSE II were worked out some time ago.
The remediation of the PAH’s also verifies that OSE II is an extremely effective first response bioremediation product, and has among its many benefits:
) causes the oil to float which limits the negative toxic impact to the water column or ocean floor of the oil and dispersant
) the reduction of the adhesion properties so the oil cannot stick to birds, grass, rock or sand on shorelines
) the elimination of fire hazard
) proven non-toxic by the numerous formal toxicity tests, the fact that you can safely wash your hands with it, and the TV news program in which Retired Rear Admiral Lively drank some of it
) Boom deployment actually works and can help since OSE II causes oil to float
) OSE II causes the oil to float, because of the method in which it goes to work on the oil, it is still very difficult to see
) defined end point of turning the oil into water and CO2
The above clearly demonstrate that it is the best and only needed oil spill response and that it will, even at this late date, remediate both fresh and weathered oil and dispersant currently in the Gulf.
David Tsao, Ph.D
BioChem Strike Team Leader; Deepwater Horizon