Oil Spill

The oil spill off the Louisianan coast has caused us all considerable concern. It doesn’t seem likely that our part of the world will see serious direct effects. But the oil spill will affect the general Gulf fishery for years to come. Some of our shrimp, oysters, and other commercial marine animals comes from this area, either spawning in those waters or are harvested there, then brought here. Nothing good can come from the spill.

I’m going to try to make some sense of all the hoopla surrounding this event and link you to web sites that I think offer a reasonable appraisal of what’s happening and what might be in store. The Louisianan marshes are not only a marine animal nursery but also the first line of coastal defense from hurricanes. This is generally true all around the coast. Oil will suffocate the roots of the marsh plants and, along our coast, do the same to the mangroves and marine grasses.

The estuarine environment in Southwest Florida is already under stress from agricultural runoff, improper water management, and aquifer overuse. Our fisheries are already a shadow of what they once were and collectible shells for which Sanibel was known are now protected, no longer legally collectible when alive.

Nobody knows how long it would take for the coastal ecosystems to recover (if you want to call regaining the current state “recovery”) from an event like an oil spill. Neither does anyone down here in his right mind want to be a part of an experiment to find out.

So far, we don’t seem to be in harm’s way for a direct impact from the spill. Although it is possible the Gulf Loop Current could drag oil southward, well off our coast, and eventually around to the east coast, you’d think the stuff would be considerably diluted by then. But who knows? If they can’t stop the leak even diluted oil will build up.

It’s hard to walk that thin line between the “End of the world as we know it…” and what’s really going on.  So, with this in mind, I give you the following to sort of get you started:

• Private industry is responsible for the oil drilling and its consequences. There is no federal approval process apart from the letting of permits to drill. In practice, this has worked remarkably well until now. The last major deep water uncontrolled incident was off the coast of Mexico in 1979 when the Mexican nationalized oil company, PEMEX, had a blow out. An interview on KOA radio, Denver, on the Mike Rosen show with Paul Teague is very informative.  Select the May 28, 2010 10AM hour.

• Federal responsibility extends to the coastline and, through the Coast Guard, to marine safety issues. These land areas are the primary responsibility of, mostly, the Corps of Engineers and various Department of the Interior agencies. As Louisianans learned during Katrina and evidently are learning again, federal competence seems to fall short along the coast. At least it has fallen short in a bipartisan manner. From my view, this does not auger well for increasing federal oversight.

• The effect of storms on the spill are problematic. The churning effect of a hurricane could break up the slick and make it more easily degradable. On the other hand, the counter clockwise circulation of the storm could drive the oil deeper into the marshes if it hits to the west of the spill. If the storm tracks to the east, the slick could be blown out to sea and dissipated.

• No one knows what will happen to the subsurface oil plume except that it will eventually settle out somewhere and kill marine organisms along the way and finally on the bottom (The Loop Current is mostly a surface phenomena).

Right now, there’s no end in sight.