THE GULF OIL SPILL
By: Brok
On April 4th 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, an oil rig owned by BP (British Petroleum) exploded because of a bubble of methane gas that escaped through many barriers and seals of concrete. The explosion destroyed the eco-system, cost BP millions, and killed 11 people and injured many more. We could have done better with preventing so much disaster; we could have had better precautions. We can make solutions so that if this does and when it happens again the consequences are not as disastrous. One could be a relief well built onto it already, lining the beaches with hair, and cars that run on electricity. Last I will talk about the counter arguments some people might have like the government saying that hair will not pick up enough oil.
One problem is that since the oil contaminated many things like the coral reefs, fish, shores, and beaches in the gulf; especially inl Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. That is about as long as 1 ½ southern borders of Colorado. This has taken a pretty big toll on the eco-system. Some scientists believe that the area will never be the same again. There were, and still are birds being found covered in oil, unable to fly and get away from the contaminated water. They are also finding Dead Sea turtles washing up onto the shores every day. One other problem is what the explosion did to the economy. Since fish kept dying the price of fish kept going up. People could not go and buy a crab dinner at red lobster without paying a pretty penny. The NOAA fishermen captured more than 1 billion pounds of fish in 2008. Now the fishermen cannot go fish in the area; as time went on the area of no fishing area almost doubled because of spreading oil. 37% of the water was off limits. The blow out dropped 23 billion dollars off the market. One other one is that there were no tourists anywhere on the shore line thus many stores had to close, jobs were lost, and the states that where hit lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then the cost of the cleanup cost the government 3.95 billion dollars. BP says they were spending about $100 a day on the spill. Just in July they had spent $2.65 billion.
One solution to think about is HAIR. It actually soaks up one quart of oil per minute it is actually designed to soak it up the oils on your head with its outside layer called the cuticle. We could have lined it along the beaches to soak up any oil that soaks up from the shallow waters. We also could also have huge, square pads of hair to soak up some more of the oil because all they are using now are 1 square foot pads. A relief well already built onto it could be another solution.it would have sensors on it so that we can see if there is a problem and just switch it to the relief well. This would save a lot of money and oil. My last idea is that we can make cars that run on electricity. We could have big plug in stations with four or five wind meals that power it. Not only would this cut back on the risk of explosions because of the huge demand for oil but it would also decrease air pollution.
The government is saying no hair because it doesn’t clean up enough oil. Well we probably don’t have to clean up open waters with it anyway? All we have to do is line the beaches with hair to keep them clean. They had to dig up to 4 feet of sand in some places to get all of the oil out. Also hair salons, barbers, pet hair cutters etc. donated pounds among pounds of hair that was wasted. That hair could have been used for wigs. Besides if they did this more people would go and get their haircuts then that would bring in more money it also soaks up 1 quart per pound which is saying a lot considering that I did not even think about hair until I heard about it.
To close I have talked about some problems, solutions, and counter arguments. For problems: the eco-system was destroyed, Killing fish and other water fowl. Second the economy crashed in those parts. No tourism because of the beaches being full of oil. The last one is that it cost 3.95 billion dollars. Next the solutions: what I have thought of is that we could have hair to soak up oil, have a relief well built onto the main well already, and have cars that run on electricity. Last the counter arguments: The government said no to hair because it didn’t soak up enough oil. These are my points on the 2010 gulf oil spill. So do we want to just throw this away and forget it so that when it happens again we are caught by surprise or take these solutions and put them to good use? It’s your choice.