edthecynic
Censored for Cynicism
- Oct 20, 2008
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Stuttering LimpTard always claims victory before all the facts are in, and he certainly won't give Obama and the Coast Guard any credit for their removing and burning any of the oil.
Time will tell what the real long term damage will be from the oil spill.
Time will tell what the real long term damage will be from the oil spill.
Oil Spills Pollute Indefinitely and Invisibly, Study Says
Oil Spills Pollute Indefinitely and Invisibly, Study Says
John Pickrell
for National Geographic News
November 22, 2002
A report published earlier this month shows that in sensitive near-shore environments, the effects of an oil spill can be seen even decades later.
The findings come from a study of the aftermath of an accident that occurred in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, on a foggy morning in September 1969. A Boston-bound barge entering the Cape Cod Canal ran aground on rocks, spilling 175,000 gallons (700,000 liters) of diesel fuel into the bay.
The Prestige sank in waters that are more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) deep, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) off shore. Still, so far, more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) of beaches and coves have been fouled...
At the time of the accident, researchers assumed that oil would be naturally dispersed within a few months or years, said Reddy. However, surveys during the 1970s and in 1989 detected oil in marsh sediments providing strong evidence that this isn't always the case.
The original study carried out by Woods Hole researchers in the early 1970s, is "one of the classic oil spill studies, that informed public policy about how to consider the fate and effects of spilled oil," said John Farrington, a Woods Hole researcher who studied Buzzards Bay in the late 1980s.
That study was the first to show that "an oil slick might disappear as far as visual sighting on the surface of the water, but petroleum hydrocarbons could still persist...in sediments," he said.
The current study uses chemical testing techniques that were not available in earlier studies.
Reddy's team, working with colleagues from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, collected a 14-inch-deep (36-centimeter-deep) sediment core from the marshes impacted by the spill. The core was divided into small sectionsless than an inch (2 centimeters)and tested for the presence of oil.
Hidden Danger
The results confirmed that despite the otherwise pristine appearance of the marsh, oil residues remained. The team found no contamination in the first 2 inches (6 centimeters) of the sand and earth sample. However, the central section of the core, retrieved from 2 to 11 inches (6 to 28 centimeters) below the surface, contained diesel oil compounds.
Oil that has decomposed in the environment should show a different mixture of petroleum compounds to fresh oil, said Reddy. However, many typical diesel oil compounds were observed in the core sample. This suggests that the oil degraded very little over time.
"Bacteria and Mother Nature have not significantly weathered the oil," said Reddy.
In addition, some of the chemicals in the sample core were at the same high concentrations found directly following the 1969 accident, he said.
"At the time of the spill, I doubt many people would have been able to predict the oil was still present after 30 years," said Reddy. "This study shows that oil can last for a long time, and is important when assessing the fate and clean-up of future spills."