Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 1992. 17:2613 Copyright © 1992 by Annl Reviews Inc. All rights reserved FATES AND EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS Richard J. Seymour and Richard A. Geyer Offshore Technology Research Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77845-34 KEY WORDS: short-term environmental effects, long-term environmental effects, predicting trajectories. biodegradation. chemical modification CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 261 A PARTIAL HISTORY OF MAJOR SPILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 PREDICTING THE TRAJECTORIES OF SPILLS . . .. ....... . ... . . . . . . .. . . . . 263 WEATHERING , BIODEGRADATION. AND CHEMICAL MODIFICATION . . ... . 266 SHORT-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 THE ROLE OF BIOREMEDIATION, DISPERSANTS, AND OTHER INTERVENTION METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 280 INTRODUCTION The Eon Valdez went aground in Mch , 1989 in Prince William Sound. The resulting spill was reported with unprecedented intensity by the world news media. This generated a heightened awareness and conce by the ge n era l public about the risks and the environmental consequences of oil spills. In addition, it led to an extraordinary series of political and economic events in the United States. These included the spending of billions of dollars on remedial activity, largely by Exxon, and the unusual filing of both civil and criminal legal charges against a major company . Of more lasting significance were the voluntary formation by p etl e um carriers of the Marine Spill Response Corporation' (MSRC) and the passage of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act by Congress. The M SRC is unique in that 22 companies contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to create an independent entity over which they have 261 1056-3466/92/1022-0261$02.00 Annu. Rev. Energy. Environ. 1992.17:261-283. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by 2001:ee0:4ceb:d400:d530:9744:64bf:8636 on 06/25/23. For personal use only.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Related Documents
