Statistically Speaking: How Much Exxon Valdez Oil Remains?

Dr. Chameides,

If 0.003 gallons of oil kills a small bird, is it then "used up," or does it continue to pose a hazard to the next small bird? In other words, would that 21,000 gallons of remaining oil hypothetically kill 7,000,000 small birds, and then it would be gone, or would it continue to kill more (like radiation)?

Dan

Dan - In this case we are talking about the amount of oil it takes to coat a small bird. Some of this oil would undergo degradation via digestion as the bird attempts to clean itself. The rest would not. Also degradation doesn't necessarily mean the end of toxicity, given that some degradation products are toxic in their own right and more importantly can bioaccumulate - threatening the predators of the bird as well as the bird itself. http://www.ibrrc.org/oil_affects.html

The Exxon Valdez disaster spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil into the marine environment, and impacted more than 1,100 miles of non-continuous Alaskan coastline. State and Federal agencies continue to monitor the effects of this spill, which was the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But the amount of oil from this incident released but a thimble full of oil when compared to another oil disaster that impacted the United States in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ixtoc I, blew out on June 3, 1979 in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. By the time the well was brought under control in March, 1980, an estimated 140 million gallons of oil (140 times more oil than the Exxon Valdez spill) had spewed into the bay. The Ixtoc I spill is currently #2 on the all-time list of largest oil spills of all time, and devasted the coastlines of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, ruining the economy and coastal fisheries of those states for years.

Unlike the Exxon Valdez accident, federal assistance made no effort to cleanup the Ixtoc I shorelines, nor pursue legal action against the well owners (Mexico's Pemex) which refused to reimburse any cleanup efforts paid for by the American gulf coastal states.

29 years later, we have nearly recovered from that disaster, and I'm a firm believer in time the environment where the Exxon Valdez spilled a thimble full of oil will recover as we have, in spite of all the notoriety, media publicity, and federal money that has been thrown at it.

Rick, Thanks for adding to the discussion.