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Oil Spill Causes

Oil spill pollution can have multiple causes both of natural (e.g., climatic factors, natural disturbances) and anthropogenic origin. The main anthropogenic sources include:
  • Accidental spills during:
    • Storage – oil and oil products may be stored in a variety of ways including underground and aboveground storage tanks (USTs and/or ASTs, respectively); such containers (especially USTs) may develop leaks over time;
    • Handling – during transfer operations and various uses;
    • Transport:
      • Big oil spills (up to million and hundreds of million gallons) on water or land through accidental rupture of big transporting vessels (e.g., tanker ships or tanker trucks). For example, Exxon Valdez spill was a massive oil spill off the Alaskan shoreline due to ship failure which happened in late 1980’s– oil spill pollution residuals from that spill are still affecting our environment (as of 2010 – several decades after the spill).
      • Smaller oil spills through pipelines and other devices also happens and their impact is mainly due to a large number of usually minor spills;
  • Offshore drilling – we are currently experiencing the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with its hard to predict consequences on environment, marine life and humans as the spill continues since April 22, 2010 and it may take a while until a solution is implemented.
  • Routine maintenance activities such as cleaning of ships may release oil into navigable waters. This may seem insignificant, however due to the large number of ships even few gallons spilled per ship maintenance could build up to a substantial number when all ships are considered.
  • Road runoff – oily road runoff adds up especially on crowded roads. With many precipitation events, the original small amounts of oil from regular traffic would get moved around and may build up in our environment
  • Intentional oil discharges – such as those through drains or in the sewer system. This include any regular activities such as changing car oil if the replaced oil is simply discharged in a drain or sewer system.
  • Indirectly through burning of fuels, including vehicle emissions – would release various individual components of oils and oil products such as a variety of hydrocarbons (out of which benzene and PAHs could pose serious health risks).

If you believe you have been affected by an oil spill, please do not hesitate to contact us.