Had to do this ridiculous assignment for community health, but I thought I would share with all of my millions of fans who wait with anticipation for my next blog post! Here goes...
When looking at man made mistakes, it is usually important for us to look to the past to answer the questions of the future. Perhaps if BP had spent more time learning from Exxon Valdez, we would not be in this environmental crisis today. Maybe by analyzing what happen and is still happening in Alaska, we can understand what is going to happen with the coast line of Florida and Louisiana.
In 1989, Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh reef in the icy waters of an Alaskan sound. This old tanker spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean within 20-30 miles of the shore line, this is roughly the amount of 125 Olympic sized pools. The damage on the wildlife in this part of Alaska goes something like (# of carcasses):
- 250,000 seabird
- 2,800 otters
- 300 harbor seals
- 250 bald eagles
- 22 killer whales
- billions of salmon and herring
The state itself lost $2.8 billion dollars in revenue due to public fallout from the spill (this was 20 years ago – translate that into today’s market – inflation!).
1,300 miles of shore line was affected
Those were some of the immediate effects – here are the effects seen today (20 years later, once again!):
- Oil is still present on many beaches and in the substrate.
- Deeply penetrated oil still leaches from some beaches into the ocean.
- Intertidal animals, such as mussels, are still contaminated by oil that remains in the sediments and water, affecting not only the mussels but any animals (including people) that eat them.
- Toxic subsurface oil and chronic exposures persist and continue to affect fish and wildlife (including people) at sub lethal levels.
- Cleanup can be more damaging than the impacts of the oil itself. What has failed to recover are the invertebrate communities living in the substrate. This is the most noticeable difference between beaches that received high pressure hot water washing than those that did not.
There is no way to know the lasting effects of this devastating event. Hundreds of small villages of people were affected in Alaska, but the major effects were on their ecosystem and wildlife. Louisiana and Florida are full of people, not wildlife (though there have been devastating and potentially irreversible damage on the wildlife); the lasting effects of this BP spill will impact the human part of this ecosystem in a much different way.
http://www.nps.gov/kefj/naturescience/upload/KEFJ_EVOS_1989-2009_qa.pdf
(interesting note: the above article was publish in 2009)
When looking at man made mistakes, it is usually important for us to look to the past to answer the questions of the future. Perhaps if BP had spent more time learning from Exxon Valdez, we would not be in this environmental crisis today. Maybe by analyzing what happen and is still happening in Alaska, we can understand what is going to happen with the coast line of Florida and Louisiana.
In 1989, Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh reef in the icy waters of an Alaskan sound. This old tanker spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean within 20-30 miles of the shore line, this is roughly the amount of 125 Olympic sized pools. The damage on the wildlife in this part of Alaska goes something like (# of carcasses):
- 250,000 seabird
- 2,800 otters
- 300 harbor seals
- 250 bald eagles
- 22 killer whales
- billions of salmon and herring
The state itself lost $2.8 billion dollars in revenue due to public fallout from the spill (this was 20 years ago – translate that into today’s market – inflation!).
1,300 miles of shore line was affected
Those were some of the immediate effects – here are the effects seen today (20 years later, once again!):
- Oil is still present on many beaches and in the substrate.
- Deeply penetrated oil still leaches from some beaches into the ocean.
- Intertidal animals, such as mussels, are still contaminated by oil that remains in the sediments and water, affecting not only the mussels but any animals (including people) that eat them.
- Toxic subsurface oil and chronic exposures persist and continue to affect fish and wildlife (including people) at sub lethal levels.
- Cleanup can be more damaging than the impacts of the oil itself. What has failed to recover are the invertebrate communities living in the substrate. This is the most noticeable difference between beaches that received high pressure hot water washing than those that did not.
There is no way to know the lasting effects of this devastating event. Hundreds of small villages of people were affected in Alaska, but the major effects were on their ecosystem and wildlife. Louisiana and Florida are full of people, not wildlife (though there have been devastating and potentially irreversible damage on the wildlife); the lasting effects of this BP spill will impact the human part of this ecosystem in a much different way.
http://www.nps.gov/kefj/naturescience/upload/KEFJ_EVOS_1989-2009_qa.pdf
(interesting note: the above article was publish in 2009)
