A REVIEW OF OIL SPILL POLLUTION AND AIR QUALITY IN THE NIGER DELTA: CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL

Abstract

Oil spill is the term used to describe the leak of crude petroleum into the environment. Though, the natural seeped of crude oil into the environment is inevitable, the rate of anthropogenic leaching of oil into the ecosystem is alarming. It is released intentionally into the environment through bunkery, pipeline vandalism, pipeline sabotage, corrosion of crude oil pipeline, poor maintenance culture of oil facilities, leak from faulty equipment and sometime, from accidental discharge from tankers, vessels, and other logistic process. While the presence of crude oil on surface water, underground water and the terrestrial contaminates and pollutes them, the open combustion with the atmosphere has no economic, health and socio – economic value. The products of this now deadly mixture of chemical compound are feeds to climate change, acid rain and its associated effects on the ecosystem and many health defects in man. Because the impacts of oil spill remain many years after cleanup, the synergy of green innovations and the implementation of the millennium development goal alone will not do the trick, stakeholders should sit and review the fundamental cause of oil seep into the environment and close the gaps identified in this study in other to nip the cause of oil spill in the bud.