Consequences of Gulf oil spill
Long-term effects of the Gulf oil spill on the environment, economy still unknown. “That’s an extremely different situation from what we’re facing in the Gulf,” McMahon said
Biology senior Jonathan Lam has family in Mississippi who own a seafood business on the coast, where the cost of shrimp, oysters and other seafood has shot up.
A remolded blowout preventer was installed atop British Petroleum’s plugged well late Friday, but the effects from the oil are still being felt.
“The prices have skyrocketed. It’s harder to get shrimp and we had to change suppliers,” Lam said. “As demand goes up, so does prices. Now everyone is going to the same supplier,” he said.
The British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico released about 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.
Oil from the Gulf is suffocating the seafood business on the coast and according to the National Science Foundation, it’s difficult to project the long-term damage on the environment.
On June 3, 1979, the Ixtoc I exploratory well in the Bay of Campeche, Mexico, 600 miles south of Texas, exploded. At 3:30 a.m. the well caught on fire and destroyed the platform.
The huge scraps from the ruins then sank to the bottom and damaged the stack and well casing, allowing oil and gas to mix with the sea floor water. On March 23, 1980, after 290 days, it was capped after about 140 million gallons of oil was spilled into the waters.
“The Mexico spill is still huge compared to the Gulf oil spill,” said biology professor emeritus Robert McMahon, who researches fresh water organisms.
The extent of the Ixtox spill is still unknown to researchers and scientists.
In 1989, on March 24, the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska. An oil tanker bound for California struck Bligh Reef and spilled approximately 10.9 million gallons of crude oil.
Prince William Sound’s isolated location made it extremely difficult for government officials to reach the site by helicopter, plane, or boat.
“That’s an extremely different situation from what we’re facing in the Gulf,” McMahon said. “The water in Alaska is cooler and the oil spilled on rocky cliffs, you can still see oil dripping from the rocks.”
Oil takes longer to break down in cooler water than it would in the Gulf. In Louisiana, once the oil seeps into the marshes it is there to stay, McMahon said. Unlike beaches along the coast, marshland cannot easily rid itself of oil, he said.
“It’s very hard to make predictions on what will happen because we haven’t had any studies done,” he said. “We can take some hope from the Mexico spill because most of those ecosystems recovered. The Gulf will eventually flush itself out and the system will recover.”
After the April 20 spill, the Obama administration issued a six-month ban on drilling while investigations in the Gulf continued.
“We have to continue to drill, because the idea and notion of a green society is still far off,” said Allan Saxe, political science associate professor. “I say drill, drill and drill because this is eliminating jobs, and is probably not a good idea,” he said.-The Shorthorn