Scaling impacts from oil spills: lessons learned from Ixtoc I,

Exxon Valdez, and BP/Deepwater Horizon

J. Christopher Haney, Ph.D.Chief Scientist, Defenders of Wildlife

Core science reviewer, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, 1992-2001

Principal Investigator, NRDA Bird Study #6, Deepwater Horizon Response

“Impacts of the Oil and Gas Industry toNatural Resources and Communities”

Congressional Meeting Room SouthU.S. Capitol Visitor Center,

Washington, DCApril 6, 2011

Major lessons learned:

1) previous spills show us that preparations for trans-boundary impacts from oil spills can never be fully anticipated – we plan for the last (not the next) spill. 2) locations, times, and other attributes peculiar to each spill confound our ability to respond to oil spills with regulation alone. Damages, both to our social and natural environments, are inevitable.

Generalized fate and transport of oil spilled in open ocean environments

Depending on weathering and other environmental factors, spilled oil takes on

different consistencies

Heavy pooled oil

Tar balls

Oil sheen

Oil mousse

Exxon Valdez(U.S.)

Ixtoc 1(Mexico)

BP/Deepwater Horizon

(U.S.)

Year 1989 – pre OPA 1979 – pre OPA 2010 – post OPA

Spill type acute; surface chronic; subsurface (160’)

chronic; subsurface (5,000’)

Incident type ship grounding drilling accident drilling accident

Equipment tanker well and rig well and rig

Spill volume 10.8 million gallons

140 million gallons

205.8 million gallons

Multi-state domestic?

No Yes Yes

Multi-national? No Yes, 2 Yes, ~4

Oil toxicity High Medium Medium

Contexts for three major oil spills in North America

The Exxon Valdez spill was notable for occurring with a relatively heavy, toxic type of crude oil, in cold water where biodegradation

was slow, and for impacting steep, mostly rocky shorelines.

Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled in the Bay of Campeche, Mexico, in Gulf of Mexico waters 50 m (160 ft) deep. On 3 June 1979,

the well suffered a blowout ,resulting in what was then this hemisphere’s largest accidental oil spill of ~140 million gallons.

The BP/Deepwater Horizon spill was the largest accidental oil spill in human history. Total estimates exceed 200 million gallons spilled.

Exxon Valdez(U.S.)

Ixtoc 1(Mexico)

Deepwater Horizon(U.S.)

Estimated cost in 2010 dollars

$14.8 billion $3.2 billion $100-150 billion

Cost per gallon spilled

$768 $22.3 $768 (est.)

Long-term impacts to deep sea floor

Unlikely Unknown Highly likely

Impacts to near-shore sea floor and

margin

Yes, cobble beach and intertidal

Yes, sand beach and estuaries

Yes, sand beach and estuaries

Damages to fish and fishing industry

Yes, both real and

perceived

Yes, both real and perceived

Not yet quantified

Lasting harm to top marine predators

Yes, several to many species

Probable, but largely

unknown

Likely, but still largely not quantified

Social and environmental costs of spills vary unpredictably

Some environmental impacts of spills are obvious, like tar balls on tourist beaches, or oily coating on these young brown pelicans in coastal Louisiana.

Yet other impacts are less obvious, especially certain changes to wildlife behavior, reproductive success, long-term population trends, and genetic integrity. Such damages can be detected only after years or decades of study using sophisticated research techniques.