Oil Pollution

Abstract

AbstractThe word oil refers to hydrocarbons—crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, fuel oil, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined oil‐based products. Oil pollution refers to input of hydrocarbons into a water body, either on the surface of the earth or underground. Oil may directly enter surface water bodies like ponds, rivers, streams, and oceans, and it may leach into underground water. Recognizing that moving water cleans itself, oil pollution occurs when more oil enters water than natural, physical, and chemical processes can absorb it.Accidental oil spills by oil tankers are only one of many causes of oil pollution, but they attract a lot of media attention. Media attention is justified because accidents spill a lot of oil in a short period of time. For example, oil tankerExxon Valdezspilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989. In addition to accidental oil spills, oil may enter marine environment through natural seepage, off‐shore oil drilling, illegal disposal of waste water containing oil from tankers, tank barges and other vessels, land‐based petrochemical industrial complexes, runoff containing oil from roads, oil‐contaminated stormwater, and sludge from municipalities and numerous other land‐based activities. Initially, oil‐contaminated water may enter local streams, rivers, lakes, or ponds, but ultimately it is dumped into the oceans. According to Oceana, 80% of oil dumped into the sea is from inland operators, of which 44% is the result of direct dumping or coastal drainage 33% is transported through the atmosphere, and the remaining 20% comes from accidental or deliberate spills from vessels and marine facilities (see Fig. 1) (1).