How is the BP oil spill being cleaned up?
Many people are concerned about the efforts taken to clean up and stop the spread of the recent oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The fishing industry is unable to harvest seafood in the area, and the oil may harm the wildlife underwater and along the coastline. So how do British Petroleum and the United States and local governments plan to contain and clean up the oil spill?
- The United States Coast Guard is using containment booms, or long barriers that float on the surface to keep the oil from drifting elsewhere. Once some oil is contained, the Coast Guard will start controlled fires to burn off the oil. These containment booms and controlled fires were also used in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. However, some scientists point out that the booms only contain oil on the surface, not the oil that has already mixed with the seawater and flow underneath the booms. Furthermore, once the oil has integrated with the water, it becomes hard to burn off, creating another obstacle. Bad weather conditions have also hindered efforts to set fire to the oil.
- Louisiana will also start a desperate race to build berms, or small walls, on barrier islands along the coasts to block the oil from invading the marshlands. However, the Army Corps of Engineers warns against this, saying that it may have a negative long-tern effect on the wildlife, but because the Corps hasn’t approved Louisiana’s permit to dredge, Louisiana will go ahead with it’s berm plan in order to protect its coast.
- The Department of Defense and BP have used dispersants that will cause the oil to break up into small particles that can be degraded even further by natural means. However, there has been concern about whether these dispersants will harm the sea life. Other methods for oil spill control such as the use of bacteria to eat the oil cannot be used because there is not enough oxygen in the marshes to support them.
Read on:
MSNBC.com – Oil spill is the ‘bad one’ experts feared
WashingtonPost.com – Oil cleanup technology hasn’t kept pace
CSMonitor.com – BP oil spill pushes Louisiana to desperate, massive ‘berm’ plan
NYTimes.com – In Standoff With Environmental Officials, BP Stays With an Oil Spill Dispersant
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This whole situation just leaves you stupefied, BP has failed in my opinion. They have no credibility left. It is really hard to believe how a major cooperation like BP could be so incompetent. They have been doing this for over a 100 years! The only good thing from this whole experience is that it shows we give companies like them too much credit. So sad. The saddest part of the whole situation is that many people have lost their livelihood. BP will go on, this won’t slow them down that much. But what about the small local businesses? They won’t see much of the money BP has to pay.