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Fighting Oil Pollution
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Last month, more than 1 million gallons of oil from a broken pipeline leaked into Brazil's Barigui River, threatening wildlife and endangering drinking water. But much of the world's most devastating oil pollution occurs less dramatically. What are other causes of oil pollution?
Sometimes, as in the case of the Brazilian spill, an accident happens at an oil storage facility. Sometimes an accident occurs aboard an ocean-going tanker ship that is delivering oil. But you might be surprised to learn that there are many less-obvious causes of oil pollution.
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What percentage of oil pollution is caused by natural sources?
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How much oil flows into the ocean each day, on average?
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Cause of oil pollution
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Amount of oil flowing into the ocean per year
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Big spills
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37 million gallons
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Air pollution from cars and factories that is washed into the ocean after the particles settle
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92 million gallons
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Routine maintenance of ships, in which oil is released into the water
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137 million gallons
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Oil runoff from land and industrial wastes
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363 million gallons
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Spills and operational discharges that occur during offshore drilling
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15 million gallons
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Natural seeps that occur at the bottom of the ocean
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62 million gallons
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(courtesy of Ocean Planet, Smithsonian Institution)
The amount of oil put into the world's oceans may seem like an incredible amount—and it is—but compare those annual numbers with the daily amount of oil used by the world as shown in the chart below.
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Determine what percentage of the world's daily oil consumption occurs in the United States.
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Place
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Daily oil use
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United States
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700 million gallons
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The World
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3 billion gallons
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There are many different ways to try and clean up oil spills in or around water. Methods range from manual labor to high-tech approaches.
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biological agents—these chemicals or organisms help break down oil so that it biodegrades more quickly.
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booms—these floating barriers are used to contain oil, especially in calm water. Keeping the oil in one place makes it easier to remove. While there are many professionally made booms, these barriers can also be made from common materials such as wood and car tires. They can be as simple as a board placed across the surface of the water.
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skimmers—these devices skim spilled oil from the water.
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sorbents—these big sponges absorb oil.
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gelling agents—these chemicals, also known as solidifiers, react with oil to form rubberlike solids. The solidified oil is then removed from the water by nets, suction equipment, or skimmers.
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dispersing agents—these chemicals contain compounds that break oil into droplets. (Think of how dishwashing detergent can break up grease.) Dispersants and gelling agents are the most useful methods of keeping oil from reaching shorelines.
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elbow grease—people can pitch in to help. High-pressure and low-pressure hoses can wash oil off beaches. Rakes, shovels, and bulldozers are sometimes used to pick up oil or move oily sand to where it can be cleaned by waves.
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How Oil Harms Wildlife
Since most oil floats, the animals most affected by spills are those in contact with the water, such as seabirds and sea otters.
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Spilled oil coats fur and feathers, destroying their ability to keep creatures
warm. Death by hypothermia—loss of body heat—is a result.
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Animals ingest the oil when they clean themselves. This poisons and kills them. If a predator eats an oil-soaked prey, the same result occurs.
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Animals not killed immediately by oil may suffer liver damage or blindness, disabilities that limit their ability to hunt for food and avoid predators.
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 People who cause oil spills must now pay costly penalties. Petrobras, the oil company responsible for the recent oil spill in Brazil, owes $28 million in fines to the Parana State Environmental Protection Agency.
New oil transport regulations call for safer oil tanker design, such as double hulls and double bottoms. You may remember hearing or reading about the accident that happened in Alaska in 1989, when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground and spilled about 11 million gallons of oil. Now, all tankers in Prince William Sound must be double-hulled by the year 2015.
What can you do to make a difference? Walk, bike, or take the train or subway instead of relying on cars to get you places. If you or someone in your family changes your own car oil, make sure it's disposed of properly at the community recycling center. Pouring old oil onto the ground or down a storm sewer is polluting!
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Learn More
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The Biology Explorer activity,
Environmental Changes, examines the different responses organisms have to catastrophes.
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The Riverdeep Today article,
"Everybody into the Water," describes how a boom is being used to clean up water pollution in the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts.
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