Bioremediation Of The Exxon Valdez Oil

Massive cleanup efforts were initiated within a few weeks of the spill and they continued at reduced levels for the next three years. Approximately 14% of the spilled oil was recovered by cleanup crews (Newsweek, p.50). As a result of these efforts and natural weathering, little oil from the spill remained in the affected area by 1992. However, according to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration some oil residues are still found under the ocean surface in areas sheltered from wind and waves. Yet, these residues are highly weathered and the toxicity is reduced to levels tolerable by organisms in the water (7). Nonetheless, the magnitude and timing of the Exxon Valdez oil spill raised immediate concerns about possible effects on marine fish and wildlife and prospects that these effects might be long lasting.

Bioremediation is the process in which microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts, molds, and filamentous fungi are introduced into the spills. The introduction of these microorganisms assists in altering and metabolizing various chemical compounds present in oil. When the microorganisms metabolize these certain compounds it significantly reduces the time it takes for the oil biodegradation to occur.

To begin, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was a man-made environmental disaster that occurred in 1989. On March 24, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 barrels of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska (Piatt, Lensick, Butler, Kendziorek & Nysewander, 1990). Eventually, this oil spread across 30,000 km² of water, damaging ecosystems and marine life along the way (Piatt, 1990). Evidently, this oil spill is considered to be one of the most destructive man-made environmental disasters in history (Dimdam, 2013).

Bioremediation is the use of bacteria, fungi, some types of transformed bacteria, and other microbes in the decomposition of garbage and breaking down of petroleum products. An example of where a transformed bacteria was used to reduce pollution is seen when scientists broke down naphthalene, an environmental pollutant found in soils that are artificially created, by using genetically altered pseudomonas fluorescents. This bacteria is stimulated to uptake the gene for fluorescence so that when it breaks down the naphthalene it produces light. The light produced depends on the amount of chemical the bacteria breaks down, allowing scientists to monitor the efficiency of the process. The Exon-Valdez oil spill is a famous example that involves the use of transformed bacteria that was genetically engineered to breakdown hydrocarbons in

Offshore oil drilling is a controversial topic because when oil spills, it does extensive amounts of damage to the environment. Countries capable of mining oil in the ocean reap the economic benefits in addition to reducing their dependency on external oil. While it is uncontroversial that offshore drilling is a massive boon for those countries, the environmental consequences of a spill also affect the economic welfare of nearby residents. Oil contaminates animals through a process called biomagnification, where chemicals progressively become more detrimental to the animals the higher they are on the food chain. When oil spills into the ocean, it impairs the growth of native species and deteriorates the ecosystem. As a result, the livelihood of people in the tourist industry, fisherman, and shrimpers is crippled and may take decades to recover.

In 2010, an oil spill, now called the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred at the Gulf of Mexico. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil was dumped into the ocean. The oil exposed to the marine life’s environment caused many of the marine life to become sick. Many of the birds would ingest oil while they tried to clean the oil off of their feathers and would cause them to have lung disorders. According to scientist, up to 800,000 thousand birds and 300,000 turtles died as a result. I am here to today to raise awareness on this issue and inspire others to help protect our oceans. I hope that one day, we can restore our oceans to the clean and pure ocean it once was.

Alford, J. B., Peterson, M. K., Green, C. C. (2014) The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and the collapse of the Prince William Sound Herring Stock: A Reexamination of Critical Biomass Estimates. In M.K. Peterson (Ed.), Impacts of Oil Spill Disasters on Marine Habitats and Fisheries in North America. (pp. 144-151). Anchorage, AK: CRC

Lutra canadenis, river otter, in the Prince William Sound, Alaska encountered major effects for the Exxon Valdez oil spill (Duffy et al. 1994). Lutra canadenis consume marine fish and marine invertebrates which makes them unique from freshwater otters and inshore otters (Bowyer et al. 1995). L. canadenis are terrific species to display pollution effects on mammals (Duffy et al. 1994). It was noted by, Duffy et al. that river otters in the areas located in the oil spill had a decrease in body weight and the levels of haptoglobin in the blood was elevated. Duffy et al. discovered that the river otters in the areas affected by the oil had a higher level of haptoglobin, aspartate aminotransferase, and interleukin which indicated that there was

In this century, there are nothing new about human corruption of the earth. However, in this article said that today, scientists has investigated the effects of Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 on Alaskan communities and ecosystems for embryonic salmon and herring. Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska shows that the spill may had much greater impacts on spawning fish than previously recognized because of crude oil can develop hidden heart defects that adjustment for their later survival.

Fruitvale was a perfect town. There was a nice creek (Strawberry Creek) that dogs and children could play in and a very good diner that families could eat out at. Fruitvale was a mini fairy-tale land, until they hit reality. Fruitvale was recently contaminated by a No-Bug Pesticide that farmers had been using to get rid of the bugs eating their crops. Twelve wells were tested and the No-Bug Pesticide had not contaminated the Fruitvale Municipal Water Well yet. After one year, we tested all of the wells again to see how far the contaminant has spread. We have found that Fruitvale has approximately three years to get Fruitvale de-contaminated. We want to keep the cost at a minimum and all of the Fruitvale residents safe. To meet these goals, we hypothesize that bioremediation would be the most efficient way to accomplish the following task of making Fruitvale a safe

In this paper I will be discussing the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on microbes in different locations of the Gulf Coast. A study done by Lamendella et al. (2012) investigated the effect of the oil on samples of microbes collected from a beach that was heavily impacted by the spill. Another investigation took a look at microbes on surface sediment samples from 64 different sites (Mason et al., 2014). A third study researched the past, present, and possible future responses of microbial communities, and how they have evolved to adapt to oil that was failed to be removed (Kimes et al., 2014).

The clean up phase of the railroad avenue site has used solvent flushing for enhanced in-situ bioremediation in hot spot PCE zones and dissolved-phase plume. The site is also monitored at least

This article begins by exploring the notion of society’s trust in the corporation despite the many scandals that have come to light in recent years. Examples of huge scandals of the 1990s that were sensationalised in the media include Enron’s accounting fraud, the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, and Bre-X’s falsified mining operations.

Bioremediation was a major approach in removing the oil following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the spill most known for the considerable impact it had on the wildlife of Alaska and the extensive repair measures that followed. The world production of crude oil is more than three billion tons per year, and nearly half of this is transported by sea. Consequently, the international transport of petroleum by tankers is frequent. Bioremediation is the use of microbes, or naturally occurring organisms, to break down harmful pollutants. The bioremediation process was proven to be the most effective due to the microorganism’s ability to degrade the hydrocarbons found in oil. Microbes capable of degrading oil are primarily bacteria or fungi and basically

In this essay the advantages and limitations of bioremediation, biostimulation, and biofermentation with regard to environmental factors will be discussed and evaluated. Ship pollution is a huge source of ocean pollution, the most devastating effect of which is oil spills ("Causes and Effects of Ocean Pollution”). Ship contamination is a gigantic wellspring of sea contamination, the most crushing impact of which is oil Spills. Unrefined petroleum goes on for a considerable length of time in the ocean and is amazingly lethal to marine life, regularly choking out marine creatures to death once it ensnares them. Raw Petroleum spills are extremely hard to clean up, when it is separated it is there to remain. What 's more, numerous boats lose a huge number of boxes every year because of tempests, crises, and mischances. This results in noise pollution, algae, and ballast water.