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Daniel Clark

Senter

Composition II

17 May 2010

The Gulf Oil Spill: It Came from the Deep

If you have ever read the short story by Steven King called The Raft, the story is about a

large oil slick like object, the comes by and one by one kills people who on a canoe trip.

Recently, there was a real-life one of these that happened when the oil rig “Deep Water Horizon”

exploded. This produced an oil slick that has killed wildlife, miles of coastline, and disrupted (at

least for now) destroyed the livelihood and economy on many seafood dependent towns. It has

also hurt towns that depended on tourism, as nobody wants to go to watch an oil slick crash on

the beach. If we are to keep our wildlife safe and protect our coastal states economies, no more

offshore drilling rigs can be built, and better and much more stringent regulations and

containment plans must be instituted to the current rigs that are being used.

Obviously, one of the major victims of harm by the oil slick if the voiceless- the sea life.

The gulf coast is home to many species or fish, coral, and birds that have come to rely and on

their habitat remaining pristine. When a bird swoops down into the ocean to get a fish, it is

instead covered in oil and unable to fly to get out and ends up drowning, just to join the other

host of animals dead on the beach because of oil covering their habitat. The spill’s affect is not

limited to birds and ocean dwellers, it also affects animals that live in bogs The BP’s answer to

helping contain the oil spill was to spray a host of chemicals into the ocean, including one called

Corexit 9500, which is noted to be moderate risk to human health. Corexit can cause eye, skin
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and respiratory irritation, and has been shown to build up in animals (which one day humans will

eat) and sediment.

Many claim however, that offshore drilling is safer than getting oil by tanker. However,

this is simply not true, the use figures such as “minuscule” and “infrequent.” my question is

minuscule and infrequent to compare to what? They also make claims that there is less chance of

a spill on an oil rig than on a ship, while they do not back up, even if this were true, the majority

of ships would be farther out than a rig, and thus have more of a chance to disperse before it hits

land and heavily populated waters, thus causing much less damage. In addition, ships have a

limited amount of oil on them, and thus has a limit to how much they can release, while an

offshore rig spilling has a virtually limitless supply (50 million barrels for example in the gulf.)

Even an energy investment firm chairman admits that this is a problem of the amount of oil when

dealing with drilling. Matt Simmons of Simmons & Co. stated “It is really a catastrophe… I

don’t think they’re going to be able to put the leak out until the reservoir depletes. It’s just too

technically challenging.”

Finally, the impacts of the oil spill just harm wild life and the environment, they hurt the

everyday lives the economy. Much of the gulf coast relies on industries that rely on the ocean,

whether it is for fishing and shrimping, or tourists’ wanting to enjoy a pristine white sand beach,

the ocean is the life blood of the gulf. Right now, no one can fish or shrimp in the gulf coast, and

many tourists do not want to be told they cannot swim because they beach is covered in oil. This

is devastating the economy of the gulf coast and no one knows when or even if the seafood from

that area will be safe to eat. Also unknown is when and how beaches will be cleaned up, sand is

very hard to clean as seen by the Exxon-Valdez spill which still has oil soaked beaches twenty

years later. BP claims that they will pay for any “legitimate” claim, but they are federally only
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required to pay up to a certain amount, and the cleanup cost alone has already surpassed that.

Exxon also showed us that oil companies fight tooth and nail to not pay out claims, as that fought

the residents of Prince Edward sound that suffered (and are still suffering) from the Exxon-

Valdez spill. Exxon after twenty years, and having gone to the Supreme Court, only paid out a to

the fraction of what the damages actually cost.

The above shows that offshore drilling has very much greater costs, and risks than its

supposed benefits. It harms wildlife, is risky, and it threatens residents who live in coastal

regions. To ensure that we have a health ocean and coastal economies, new offshore drilling

must be stopped and the current wells must be better and strictly regulated.
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Citations

Arnoldy, Ben. "On U.S. Coasts, a Rethink on Oil Drilling?" The Christain Science Monitor. The

Christain Science Monitor, 20 June 2008. Web. 12 May 2010.

Associated Press. "FISHING IS HALTED ON GULF COAST." The Kansas City Star 3 May

2010: A1+. Print.

Broder, John M. "Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time." The New York

Times 30 Mar. 2010: A1. The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 Mar. 2010.

Web. 13 May 2010.

Burdeau, Cain, and Ray Henry. "Fishing Is Halted on Gulf Coast." The Kansas City Star 3 May

2010: A1+. Print.

Dearen, Jason, and Ray Henry. "Chemicals Used to Fight Oil Slick a Trade-off." MSNBC.com.

MSNBC, 5 May 2010. Web. 13 May 2010.

"Drilling in Deep Water." The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 4 May 2010. Web.

16 May 2010.

Mohr, Halbrook, and Allen G. Breed. "SPILL: Slick Triples in Just Two Days." The Kansas City

Star 3 May 2010, sec. A1+. Print.

"Wildlife Still Exposed to Exxon Valdez Oil 20 Years After Disaster." Energy Business Journal

(2010): 206. Web. 15 May 2010.