Oil Spill Blog

Global warming poses a serious threat to our planet. If we don’t do our bit to safeguard the environment, future generations may have to pay a heavy price for it. Adopting green technologies or using eco-friendly green products are a few things that we can do to make sure that we do not cause any further damage to the environment.

Here is a list of some innovative and interesting environmentally-friendly technologies that can make a difference.

Zero-energy Homes – Several home owners in California have built zero-energy homes that combine energy-efficient construction and practices. They not only reduce the energy demand by up to 70 percent by means of latest energy-efficient technologies, but also generate all the electricity required from photovoltaic solar panels.

Motion-powered Speed Bumps – In this method, energy is generated each time a car passes over the bump from its weight and movement. These energy-generating speed bumps make use of long think pedals whose movement generates around 2,000W of electricity per car.

Oil Gone Easy S-200 – This is an oil stain remover that makes use of an environmentally-friendly technology called bioremediation. This product does not contain any harmful chemicals and degrades the harmful hydrocarbons in the oil using the bacteria present in the atmosphere. Using such eco-friendly green products that make use of green technologies will help protect our environment.

Sewage-powered Fuel Cells – In this environmentally-friendly technology, bacteria used in the treatment of sewage in waste water treatment plants are used to generate electricity.

Energy Curtain – This energy curtain does more than just provide shade; it provides light. The outer side of the blind has special solar energy-collecting cells, which store up energy during the day and and provide light during night. All that needs to be done is to pull down the blinds during the day for it to charge.

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Any major oil spill causes great environmental damage. The oil spill that took place on the San Francisco Bay in 2007 resulted in spillage of 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel from the container ship Cosco Busan.

But what makes the San Francisco Oil Spill unusual, is the oil spill cleanup technique that was adopted. A group of volunteers cleaned San Francisco’s beaches using unconventional products, namely human hair and mushrooms.Though unconventional, it is an organic and eco-friendly way of cleaning up oil spills.

Hair is a natural absorbent that soaks oil very well. In the San Francisco Oil Spill, masses of matted hair the size of a doormat were used to soak up oil. (These mats are woven from human hair donated by salons.) After the visible effect in the San Francisco oil spill, others have also started using these for cleaning up oil spills.

You must be wondering where mushrooms come into the picture in this whole process. Oyster mushrooms have the power to convert toxic oil to compost. In the San Francisco oil spill, once the hair mats had soaked up the oil, oyster mushrooms were layered between these mats. In about 12 weeks, these mushrooms not only absorbed but turned these oil-soaked mats into non-toxic compost.

The success of using hair and mushrooms in the San Francisco oil spill cleanup calls for more such innovative, cost-effective, and eco-friendly techniques of cleaning oil spills. One such eco-friendly technique that has proved to be effective in oil spill cleanup is bioremediation technology.

Oil Gone Easy S-200 is an oil stain remover that makes use of bioremediation technology. Instead of toxic chemicals, microorganisms present in the atmosphere are used to degrade the harmful hydrocarbons present in the oil. Thus, this eco-friendly product cleans oil stains without causing any harm to the environment.

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Millions of gallons of oil is stored and delivered everyday through tanker ships, pipelines, and trucks in America. Oil, though a valuable energy resource, is extremely hazardous to soil, groundwater, freshwater, marine habitats, human, and animal life when spilled, as it contains toxic chemicals.

To conserve this valuable energy resource and to safeguard the nation’s health and environment, several spill prevention actions are being undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) Foremost among them is that oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plan. It is a facility-specific plan that requires any facility that stores large quantities of oil in any form to develop and implement a scheme that spells out its preventive measures as well as its response capabilities.

To be more specific, it is mandatory for facilities with more than 1,320 gallons of above ground oil storage capacity using storage media such as tanks, containers, drums, portable totes, transformers, and oil-filled electrical equipment and facilities with 42,000 gallons of underground tank storage capacity to prepare a SPCC plan.

The SPCC plan covers the following areas, namely operating procedures for oil spill prevention; control measures for preventing a spill from reaching navigable waters; and countermeasure to contain, oil spill cleanup, and reduce the effects of the spill.

In addition to written management approval, the SPCC plan must also be certified by a registered professional engineer. This plan must be reviewed and documented once in every three years. It should also be amended if the facility undergoes any change in the design, construction, operation, or maintenance. These amendments too must be certified by a registered professional engineer.

The consequences of non-compliance of the SPCC plan are severe. If untrained personnel are used, or if a spill that enters a waterway is not reported, or if there is a lack of an adequate SPCC plan, it can result in fines up to $25,000 per day per.

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Residential oil spills can be caused by different things such as domestic fuel tank leakage, oil spills during floods, and oil leakage from vehicles or lawn mowers. Whatever the cause of the spill, the outcome is disastrous.

An oil spill at home can prove to be dangerous to you and your family. Besides fire hazards, chances of associated health hazards are high. Vapors from petroleum products are highly noxious and can cause problems such as increased blood pressure, nausea, eye irritation, headaches, and light-headedness when inhaled. Long-term exposure to high levels of harmful vapors can cause nervous and respiratory problems. That is why you should know how to deal with residential oil spills.

Here are some steps that you can follow to efficiently manage residential oil spills. The first thing to do when a spill occurs is to report it to the oil delivery company. Next come the safety precautions. Remove all sources of ignition. Open the windows for proper ventilation. Do not operate central heating or air conditioning. Furnace fan should be shut down to minimize the distribution of odors throughout the house.

Now comes the most important part of all, the oil spill cleanup. You can minimize the damage caused by removing oil stains promptly. So, try your best to contain the spill as early as possible. Use a good oil stain remover such as Oil Gone Easy S-200, an eco-friendly product that makes use of the bioremediation technology to degrade oil. Pour this oil stain remover on the oil spill or on oil stains anywhere in your home. Wear full pants, long sleeved shirts, rubber gloves, and overshoes during oil spill cleanup work to reduce skin exposure. Make sure that you don’t track oil from contaminated area to other parts of the house. If there is a strong odor, fans can help control it.

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The oil spill that occurred on January 28, 1969 in Buzzard’s Bay off Cape Cod, when a barge ran aground resulted in the spilling of 200,000 gallons of oil. Like other oil spills, this too had a severe ecological impact. Not only was the seabird population affected, even shorebirds and diving birds faced enormous problems.

But, what makes one talk about this oil spill even today is the fact that, even after four decades of this oil spill, researchers have found compelling evidence that the aftereffects of this spill still exists even after extensive oil spill cleanup.

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy have found evidence that the marine environment still contains oil, even though the surface sediments appear fine. The study revealed that though the top two inches or the lower three inches of the core didn’t contain any petroleum residue, the central section of the sediment core had petroleum hydrocarbons similar in concentration to those found in the 1969 Oil Spill.

Several other studies have further proved that wildlife and salt marsh too are facing the aftermath of this oil spill. It has taken a huge toll on the sea grass beds and fiddler crabs of Wild Harbor’s marshland. There has been a significant change in the population, burrowing behavior, escape response, and feeding rate of fiddler crabs in Wild Harbor. When compared to the fiddler crabs in nearby Great Sippewissett marsh, these crabs dug short burrows because of residual oil. It has also been proven that the harmful oil residues in the sediments have hindered microbial degradation in these salt marshes.

These findings show how devastating oil spills can be. So, it gives us all the more reason to take steps to not only prevent oil spills, but also do a thorough job of oil spill containment and oil spill cleanup.

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