causes of oil spills
DESCRIPTION
There are several factors that lead to an oil spill. Factors that can be controlled, such as human error as well as factors that cannot be controlled, such as weather cause oil spills. Accidents during transportation of oil or other phases of oil production result in spills. Wars, vandalism, and illegal dumping can also cause an oil spill.TRANSCRIPT
Causes of Oil Spills
When an oil spill occurs, it results in huge environmental disastersand monetary loss. Oil
spills can be caused by many things. Carelessness or deliberate dumping by humans and
natural causes such as floods, hurricanes, and storms are a few of them.
Most of the oil spills occur when oil is transported across the ocean. Accidents involving
tankers, barges, or refineries result in oil spills. These accidents may occur due to several
reasons such as explosions, running aground, hull failure, and collisions. Cracks that develop
in the underground pipelines that transport oil can also result in oil seepage into the
environment. Oil spills also occur during lightering, the process of transferring oil from one
vessel to another.
Not just during transportation; oil spills also occur during different phases of production. For
instance, they may occur during extraction process in oil wells or conversion process in
refineries. Drilling also causes natural seepage of oil.
The majority of the accidents occur due to human error or carelessness, which fall under
controlled factors. In a study conducted by Nuka Research and Planning Group of Homer,
Alaska, it was found that 80 percent of oil spills and marine accidents were caused by
human error. According to the study, though improvement in technology can help reduce
the severity of the spill, it cannot altogether prevent one from happening.
Human mistakes are not the only reason for such accidents. They may also occur due to
breakdown of machinery or intentional spills due to vandalism or wars. Illegal dumping of oil
is also an important factor that needs to be mentioned.
Apart from these controlled factors, there are several uncontrolled factors such as
hurricanes and other stormy weather conditions that cause oil spills. Another natural cause
is the shifting of tectonic plates. When this happens, oil from the reserves below the ocean
floor are released into the environment. Though nothing can be done about the uncontrolled
factors, steps must be taken to make sure that oil spills don’t occur due to mistakes on our
part.