EARTH DAY  #2 : GULF OIL CRISIS

EDITORIAL: NICOLAS HERMES 

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISOR : CIVIL RIGHTS PARTY OF CANADA.

 

April 20, 2010, undersea oil blow-out disaster destroy’s  the

Deepwater Horizon oil rig and kills 11 oil workers  40 miles offshore  spewing more than 3.5 million gallons of oil into the Gulf up to this point.  Efforts to reduce the oil gushing out 200,000 gallon-a-day  have failed until further action is taken to reduce the catastrophic damage it has done to surrounding wildlife, eco-system, human co-dependency on fisheries and local businesses, creating an oceanic dead zone that may take up to 25 years to replenish itself.

Oil balls as big as golf balls began washing ashore on Alabama's Dauphin Island, a barrier island that helps protect the entrance to Mobile Bay and some 16 miles of coastline to the west.

 

This gigantic oil blow out has created new challenges for everyone living near the Mexican Gulf coastline, fisheries, small businesses, local agencies, academia, the science community, the coast guard, schools and universities all have to gather data and work together to reduce the devastation and study the long-term consequences this man made disaster has caused, this is the largest oil disaster in the history of U.S oil drilling.

 

What scientists know about how oil spills can affect the environment – and for how long – is drawn from a range of past events, no two of which have been alike. It means that  leading scientists can build a model for what they think is going to happen, but we may wake up the next day and not know exactly what to expect

 

Comparisons with the Exxon Valdez spill, for example, can be misleading because of significant differences in the type of oil, the ecosystems affected, and the way natural processes break down oil.

 

Moreover, the uncertainty is greater in the current spill. For the most part, researchers have studied the aftermath of surface spills. The Deepwater Horizon blow-out occurred at 5,000 feet, dispensing crude oil from seafloor to surface.

Many of the long-term effects may remain hidden as natural processes and chemical dispersants break up the oil into small globules dense enough to sink to the bottom. There, it has the potential to affect bottom dwellers for decades.

“This is uncharted territory in terms of assessing the effects of a spill from a deep well like this,” says Judy McDowell, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

 

Dr. McDowell was a coauthor of a 
2003 National Academy of Sciences report that remains a seminal work for understanding the behaviour of petroleum and petroleum products spilled in marine and coastal environments, many marine scientists say.

 

For Louisiana in particular, a key area of concern is coastal marshes. They are the breeding ground as well as home base for a wide range of marine life vital to the region’s fishing industries. Moreover, the wetlands provide a first barrier against storm surges from hurricanes.

 

But southern Louisiana’s wetlands already are stressed – vanishing as the Mississippi Delta sinks beneath the ocean at a rate that, by some estimates, averages 50 acres a day. In addition, the fisheries off the coast are exposed to an annual “dead zone” each spring as nutrient-rich water from the continental heartland moves down the Mississippi and into the Gulf, triggering algae blooms. When the algae die and decompose, the process uses up much of the dissolved oxygen in the water. Fish flee, but bottom dwellers – crabs and other shellfish – generally can’t move fast enough to do so. (Reuters) - With the failure this weekend of BP's "top kill" attempt to plug its leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well, fears are growing that the economic and environmental impact of the nearly six-week-old spill can only spread.

 

Here are some facts about effects of the worst ever U.S. oil spill, triggered by the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig:

 

THE SCALE OF THE CATASTROPHE

"This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country," top White House energy adviser Carol Browner said on Sunday.

"There could be oil coming up 'til August." Browner told CBS's "Face The Nation," "We are prepared for the worst."

Louisiana, the nearest state to BP's gushing undersea well that is 42 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, has been the most impacted by the spill so far.

 

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that more than 100 miles of Louisiana's 400-mile coast had so far been impacted by the spilled oil.

State officials have reported sheets of oil soiling wetlands and seeping into marine and bird nurseries, leaving a stain of sticky crude on cane that binds the marshes together.

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, saw dying cane and "no life" in parts of Pass-a-Loutre wildlife refuge.

"Oil debris", in the form of tar balls and surface "sheen", has also been reported coming ashore since the April 20 accident in outlying parts of coastal Mississippi and Alabama.

 

In the week of May 17, 2010 Coast Guard officials found tar balls on some beaches in the Florida Keys, raising fears that the so-called Loop Current that runs from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Straits may have already brought oil from the spill far to the southeast. But laboratory tests subsequently showed the tar balls were not from the BP spill.

 

FISHERIES

The U.S. government has declared a "fishery disaster" in the seafood-producing states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama due to the oil spill. This makes them eligible for federal funds to offset the impact on fisherman and their communities of the oil pollution in their fishing grounds.

Louisiana's $2.4 billion seafood industry supplies up to 40 percent of U.S. seafood supply and employs over 27,000 people. The state is the second-biggest U.S. seafood harvester and the top provider of shrimp, oysters, crab and crawfish.

 

NOAA  extended the area closed to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the spill to 25 percent of Gulf U.S. federal waters, an area covering 60,683 square miles (157,168 square km), up from 20 percent previously.

It is taking this step as a precautionary measure to ensure that seafood from the Gulf will remain safe for consumers.

NOAA points out that approximately 75 percent of Gulf federal waters are still available for fishing.

But the ban affects hundreds of thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen, hitting the livelihoods of shrimpers, oystercatchers and charter boat operators.

 

WILDLIFE

Oil, some of it in thick sheets, but also in the form of sheen and tar balls, has already come ashore in Louisiana wildlife reserves like the Breton National Wildlife Refuge in the offshore Breton and Chandeleur Islands, and the Pass-a-Loutre refuge further to the south.

 

Over the 40 days since the spill started, wildlife officials report that 491 birds, 227 turtles and 27 mammals, including dolphins, have been collected dead along the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to an update released on Sunday by the oil response unified command.

Officials stress that not all of the deaths were necessarily caused by the BP spill, and that some will have been from natural causes.

Of the 491 dead birds collected, only 28 were visibly oiled. A further 66 visibly oiled birds were rescued alive.

Journalists and scientists have also reported seeing at least one shark, and other creatures like eels and turtles, swimming through surface oil.

 

Wildlife officials say however they expect more marine creatures, birds and mammals will be affected.

Scientists say they are also concerned about the unseen and unknown effects on the marine environment and food chain of underwater "plumes" of dispersed oil, some of them several miles (km) long, emanating from the deepwater spill site.

TOURISM

Tourism operators in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- from hotel owners to restaurateurs and boat charters -- have reported cancellations as a result of the oil spill, although some are picking up other business from journalists, officials and cleanup workers who have flocked to the Gulf Coast.

Amidst a scare involving tar balls found on Florida Keys beaches -- later declared not to have come from the BP oil spill, Florida's $60-billion-a-year tourism industry is also losing millions as a result of the incident, a top state tourism marketing official said earlier this month.

Of all the threatened states, Florida has the most to lose. Tourism is its economic lifeblood, its largest industry, generating $60 billion in spending from more than 80 million visitors a year, bringing in 21 percent of all state sales taxes and employing nearly 1 million Floridians.

Officials say even the mere threat of oil pollution from the spill is enough to make a significant "dent" in the tourism industries of Florida and other Gulf states.

Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are spending millions of dollars -- paid for by BP -- to get the message out that their beaches are, for the moment, free of oil.

SHIPPING

Major shipping channels and ports on the U.S. Gulf Coast remain open, although some industry sources have reported possible delays caused by the oil slick.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Friday it had begun work to survey a new ship anchorage site at the mouth of the Mississippi River for ships to undergo inspection and oil decontamination before entering ports.

U.S. authorities are anxious to keep Gulf shipping operating to maintain vital U.S. exports and imports. NOAA says the Lower Mississippi River ports export over 50 million metric metric tones of corn, soybeans and wheat each year, more than 55 percent of all U.S. grains inspected for shipment.

Other sources: NOAA

(Reporting by Matthew Biggin Venice, Louisiana, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Pascal Fletcher in Miami, Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sandra Maler)

U.S.