Paddling through the water, I suddenly felt a sticky substance on the sole of my foot. Massive amounts of tar had washed up on my local beach and I managed to get a large piece wrapped around my foot. This past summer I have seen an absurd amount of tar on beaches in southern California. I grew up occasionally using baby oil to scrub tar off my foot after a long day at the beach, but never in my life have I seen tar balls create a barrier between the sand and the sea. Tar balls, or tar patties, are oil-containing substances formed from both oil spills as well as from naturally occurring sources in the ocean floor. When oil floats to the ocean surface, a process called weathering breaks the oil up into smaller patches. Chemical and …show more content…
However, I believe that there are ways we can sustainably recycle tar, especially from our beaches. In this paper, I will explore already established ways to recycle beach tar, as well as offer my own proposals. When I see tar, I immediately think of oil. Therefore, I always wondered why we could not extract oil from tar balls and use it. According to The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, once oil sits in the ocean too long, it becomes contaminated with salt, sediments, and other materials that make it unusable. However, are there ways to extract the oil from the tar and leave behind the other organic materials? Oil should not be wasted because it is a non-renewable energy (Troisi, Barton, and Bexton 2016). Tar balls are always collected and then dumped into a landfill, buried, or incinerated. Current disposal methods move the pollution from the sea into the air and drinking water sources. In 2010 in Mississippi, tar balls covered local beaches from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by BP. Pressure from community officials forced the Mississippi attorney to reach out for possible solutions. Several companies responded with innovative ideas. One local engineering firm proposed the use of a sand agitator to extract the sand from the oil, making the sand returnable to the beach and the oil sellable (Ho 2010). Another company called Hydra-tone Chemicals, proposed the use of safe coconut
It has been proven and stated by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that “Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on
Lining the shore with biodegradable jute bags: These bags capture wave energy but still allow sand to drift naturally along the coast. There is concern that these jute bags can cause damage to the local ecology and are unsightly when decomposing which can have a negative impact on
The production of tar sands oil produces emissions that are three to four times higher than conventional oil. This is in part due to the large amount of energy required in the extraction and refining of the oil. Large quantities of heat, water, and chemicals are used to separate bitumen from sand, silt, and
The La Brea tar pits have been well-known for over a century. Before the rise of European settlers, local Indian tribes used the tar to caulk canoes and waterproof tents. As the Industrial Revolution took off the early 1900s, the tar pits attracted oil men, as asphaltum is often associated with petroleum. Then,
In recycling, raw materials that have already been obtained are used, which reduces the need for more materials to be extracted. If we recycle enough to slow the rate of extraction bringing it lower or equal to the rate that our resources replenish themselves we are living sustainable. This project is especially important because it focuses on recycling objects that take a lot of resources to make and that can't be organically broken
The oil production in Canada has several significant issues that depict the destruction nature of the industry. These issues can be categorized as environmental, political, economic, and social. The environmental issues lead the pack; in that the environmental destruction associated with the industry is extensive. The environmental problems are climatic, land, water and air related (Best & Hoberg, 2015). Under climatic effect, studies indicate that the development of the tar sides has resulted to three times more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than in production of conventional oil. These environmental issues are caused by the composition of the tar sands. Unlike the convention oil, tar sands are a mixture of bitumen and sand. The process of separating the two results triples GHGs emissions when compared to conventional oil production (Koring, 2013).
In New Jersey alone state, local and federal agencies have spent 1.2 billion dollars over the last thirty years to dump 120 million cubic yards of sand over the state’s coastline. This high price tag is in part due to the fact that the sand that is placed on the coastline quickly erodes and a new project must be undertaken. In fact, sand used to nourish beaches erodes at a rate that is often two to three times faster than natural sand.This creates a cycle in which beaches are constantly needing to be renourished and does nothing to actually prevent the process of erosion.
Literature suggest that the essential management practices to follow when responding to an Oil Spill is to dispose of oil spill debris with the aim of
The e Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April 2010 killed 11 people and caused almost 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill covered 68,000 square miles of land and sea and triggered a response effort involving the use of nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals (Pallardy). Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) resulted in widespread environmental and economic damage, the exact nature of which is only beginning to be understood (Shultz 59). This paper will address the causes of this unmitigated ecological disaster and discuss steps that need to be taken to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again.
The damage caused by the spill is almost immeasurable; ecological, political, economic, social it almost devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast fishing and tourism industries. Even in January 2011 a report was made by oil-spill experts from the University of Georgia stating that tar balls continue to wash up on beaches, collect in shrimp nets, kill marsh grass, and even undegraded oil in the seabed (Dykes, 2011). It will likely be years, if not decades, before the final assessment of damage, short-term and long-term, is accurately noted from this disaster.
As a young girl comes out of the ocean from swimming, suddenly she notices the brown oily stains on her bathing suit. When she looks back into the water, tar balls flow with the current of the water. The girl automatically washes the toxins off of her body, and she no longer wants to go to the beach for vacation. This results in lower tourist rates. Although accidents happen, the coastal workers continually strive to keep the beaches clean for the tourists that visit regularly. The recent British Petroleum oil spill that ravaged the Gulf Coast has turned people away from offshore drilling, but this type of drilling can really benefit the United States without great destruction.
In Santa Barbara, California, in 1969, even though the spilled oil was not even very large, thousands of dolphins, seals, and birds were killed (Ivanovich, and Hays, 2008). Moreover, in the Gulf of Mexico, 82,000 birds, roughly 6,165 sea turtles, approximately 25,900 marine mammals, and indefinite amount of oysters, fishes, corals, and crabs have been harmed or killed by the spilled oil. Additionally, the spilled has killed many aquatic plants. ( A Center for Biological Diversity Report, 2008). As a result, vegetation, which are the most essential part of the ecological pyramid, and other animals will be affected negatively by the dangerous impact of the spilled oil, which probably is going to cause some problems in the ecological pyramid. In fact, any defect in the ecological pyramid may become a dreadful problem that occurs an ecological
Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).
In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.
Swimming through a lake of blood, which was very close to me house was the first step to get to safety. At 2003, there was enormous war between Iraq and America. The war was harsh and devastating. It destroyed everything, but the most important things that it destroyed were the customs, and the ethics of Iraqi people. Few years after the war were ended. Iraq encountered many problems one of these problems was the security situation, it was very bad. Another trouble that they faced was the political relations between Iraq and other countries was poor. The Iraq economic situation was in its worst way and this was our third problems, but the main significant problem that we had was the civil war. As we, the Iraqi people, were lived there