BP Oil Spill a Back to School Nightmare

As the new school year approaches a new nightmare is unfolding due to the BP oil spill. The students who are going back to school in the region will be adversely affected. There are parents and children who have been displaced due to the loss of their income. Parents have been forced to move out of their homes and school districts due to a loose of income. The impact on children is devastating when parents must continually move to survive. Students are withdrawing from school with little notice. A child who is already far behind will lose hope that they can ever catch up.

School District superintendents and principals need to be vigilant about this issue. Too many lives are at risk and the number of students in this situation is growing. During the fall each time a new student comes into a school another student will be leaving due to issues related to the BP Oil spill. BP needs to invest its time and energy in stabilizing families to alleviate the potential harm to children. An unstable family increases the likelihood that a child is not sufficiently educated.

Students who are in their senior year of high school will suffer too. If they do not know where they will be living it will make finishing high school difficult. It could also make them leave a high school that was their home for three or four years. If a student moves far away their plans to attend college may also be affected. The senior year for the typical high school student can be stressful but the BP oils spill adds a new element.

The BP oil spill is an early warning sign concerning the environment and economic issues we must face. Our country is in need of innovative students who can develop solutions for these disasters. In an industry that is so wealthy it's hard to imagine that there would not be safety procedures to prevent the type of accident that we have witnessed. Companies need to invest more in colleges that can do research and offer solutions in the time of crisis. They should invest in bright young minds.

The warning signs have been all around us but we have ignored them. Science teachers have been teaching our children that we are too dependent on oil while they are in K12 schools but nothing has dramatically changed. Students go off to college then the graduate and purchase inefficient cars that consume a lot of gasoline. Keeping this at the forefront of discussions with children will keep it on their minds when they become corporate executives. In the next decade we should see a rise in the number of solar panels, wind mills and alternative energy for cars.

It's important that BP fulfill its obligation to correct all of the problems that they have caused. When you have more than 19,000 gallons of oil for a month you have created a catastrophic problem. It will take some families substantial time to recover their lost income. Workers who are in the fishing industry and oil industry have children who need an education too. Perhaps this is the time to emphasize the value of education and to produce the future generation of engineers and scientists who can prevent another oil accident. Let's send students back to school with enthusiasm for learning and creating the future.

Dr. Stephen Jones stephenjoness@rcn.com 610-544-5480 http://www.studyskills2u.com Article Source:

Progression of natural attenuation processes at a crude-oil spill site: I. Geochemical evolution of the plume

Isabelle M. Cozzarelli^a, , , Barbara A. Bekins^b, Mary Jo Baedecker^a, George R. Aiken^c, Robert P. Eganhouse^a and Mary Ellen Tuccillo^d

^a U.S. Geological Survey, 431 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20192, USA

^b U.S. Geological Survey, MS 496, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA

^c U.S. Geological Survey, 3215 Marine St., Boulder, CO 80303, USA

^d Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA

Received 20 March 2000;  

revised 10 January 2001;  

accepted 8 February 2001.  

Available online 5 December 2001. 

Abstract

A 16-year study of a hydrocarbon plume shows that the extent of contaminant migration and compound-specific behavior have changed as redox reactions, most notably iron reduction, have progressed over time. Concentration changes at a small scale, determined from analysis of pore-water samples drained from aquifer cores, are compared with concentration changes at the plume scale, determined from analysis of water samples from an observation well network. The small-scale data show clearly that the hydrocarbon plume is growing slowly as sediment iron oxides are depleted. Contaminants, such as ortho-xylene that appeared not to be moving downgradient from the oil on the basis of observation well data, are migrating in thin layers as the aquifer evolves to methanogenic conditions. However, the plume-scale observation well data show that the downgradient extent of the Fe²⁺ and BTEX plume did not change between 1992 and 1995. Instead, depletion of the unstable Fe (III) oxides near the subsurface crude-oil source has caused the maximum dissolved iron concentration zone within the plume to spread at a rate of approximately 3 m/year. The zone of maximum concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) has also spread within the anoxic plume. In monitoring the remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated ground water by natural attenuation, subtle concentration changes in observation well data from the anoxic zone may be diagnostic of depletion of the intrinsic electron-accepting capacity of the aquifer. Recognition of these subtle patterns may allow early prediction of growth of the hydrocarbon plume.

Author Keywords: Contaminant plumes; Characterization of plumes; BTEX; Aromatic hydrocarbons; Biodegradation

Article Outline

1. Introduction

2. Site description

3. Study methods

3.1. Field procedures

3.2. Analytical procedures

3.2.1. Water chemistry

3.2.2. Sediment extractions

4. Results and discussion

4.1. 2-D plume-scale changes in aquifer chemistry

4.2. Temporal changes in vertical profiles

4.3. Potential for transport of hydrocarbons

5. Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

 Corresponding author. Fax: +703-648-5274; email: icozzare@usgs.gov.

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Plan to Burn Off Ocean Oil Spill Would Be Ignited by Ballistic Missile

Enough oil has spilled in the Gulf of Mexico to spread all over the world's oceans. I'm sure the profit-horrified By-Product (BP) company that bears the ultimate responsibility for this catastrophic envirogeddon could easily burn off all that brown scum with the help of the U.S. Military and a handy-dandy ballistic missile. Why not torch all that messy goo and leave it to the atmosphere to absorb? Hey, just plant a couple trillion trees. That might even be overkill.

I'll tell you who's breathing a sigh of relief: Exxon. Their Exxon Valdez monstrosity won't be able to hold a candle to this spill once it's over, IF it's ever over. Gotta feel good for them. And, there;s was just one drunk captain who unfortunately got a case of "The Titanics" and steered his boat into Oil-Spill Hell. At least it wasn't from a mile down under the ocean. BP's is like a ruptured big-city sewer line with the pressure of a few thousand fire hoses pushing the crude into watery oblivion till further notice.

I think it could be time for an oil industry group prayer. That's about their only hope thus far. C'mon boys, put those hands together, drop to a knee and beg the Big Oil Profit God to cut you a break. It might work. Probably about as well as your other efforts. Go on, give it a try. What the hay?

Here's another person I know must be smiling from above: Jed Clampett. Talk about "a' bubb-a-lin' crude!"

About the Author: Grant "Brad" Gerver is an entrepreneur and co-owner of Filibi.com: Quite simply one of the most generous businesses online. "Gerv" is also a performing blues artist-songwriter [http://www.youtube.com/gbgerver] with The Buzzard Brothers and on YouTube. He is a retired elementary school teacher who currently works in the mental health care field. Article Source:

United States Government Offers Questionable Evidence on Oil Spill Clean Up

The United States government recently released a report pertaining to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Serving as a status report, the paper offered a very positive perspective on the efforts to clean the oil. According to the results, 75% of the oil had been cleaned up and the spill was will on its way to becoming negligible. However, people didn't trust these results for a number of reasons.

The first major question pertaining to the report by the United States government was that they used questionable measurement techniques. According to descriptions of the study, the same techniques were used to quantify this oil spill as the Exxon Valdez. However, the two spills are of very different types. The Exxon Valdez was a tanker spill and so the bulk of the oil spilled onto the surface. The new situation occurred in an oil well, meaning the oil leaked from within the ocean, and so the presence on the surface is a gross underestimate.

Second, the report comes from a very biased source. The United States government is in an election year, and also under a lot of pressure to take care of the situation in the gulf. If the government report said minimal amounts of oil were cleaned, it would look terrible for the government. As such, they have an incentive to say the spill has been cleaned, and so, every result they offer needs to be looked at with scrutiny.

Finally, other reports seem to offer a very different analysis of the oil spill. Many scientists describe a devastating amount of oil still present under the surface of the water, oil that will take years to clean. We can't let this oil continue to stay and we have to put pressure on the people in charge to make sure this oil gets cleaned up.

Martin Fister is an active product blogger, writing for web sites includinglaura ashley bedding and Nook Vs Kindle. In his spare time, Martin also pursues his interests in the music industry as a journalist. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Fister

Never-Ending Need for BP Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup HAZWOPER Courses

Anyone that believes that the worst is over concerning the BP Gulf oil spill in the SE area of the United States of America only has to recall the past. In what natural or man-made or better said as man-created with natural materials disaster has a corporation been truthful about the amount and term of the disaster at hand? From the lies and tribulations concerning the Exxon Valdez spill all the way back to the cause of the Chicago Fire we have been treated as if we were children when it comes to the facts about any disaster.

On the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico

The most important factor that still remains and needs to be addressed now is that there are still thousands of gallons of oil from the leak still poisoning the Gulf Coast region. With that said it is also of great importance that any of the dedicated and patriotic oil spill cleanup workers/volunteers that still wish and have the undying desire to pitch in and help clean up the nations most dramatic and costly environmental catastrophe need to have OSHA compliant safety training courses under their belt. We still need you ALL!

Bottom to Top Oil Hazards

The hazards that BP Gulf oil spill response teams as well as cleanup workers face on a daily basis is nothing short of mind-boggling. If you can imagine standing waist-deep in what is normally a picture-perfect postcard type day in the Gulf Coast but instead being outfitted from head to toe in sweltering hot PPE equipment while picking up tarballs and other unmentionables then you can almost realize what it's like in the day of a BP Gulf oil spill cleanup crew worker/volunteer. Add to this the health factors of just being in in the near vicinity of so much crude oil and you have a job to beat all jobs.

OSHA Requires Everyone to Satisfactorily Complete HAZWOPER Safety Training Courses

The Department of Labor and OSHA mandate that anyone who is involved in the actual cleanup must receive at the minimum four hours of OSHA compliant safety training that will cover in detail the hazards at the BP Gulf oil spill site as well as any other hazards that will be involved in future environmental cleanup efforts. The Department of Labor and OSHA are very good at check in OSHA compliant cards for accuracy and go directly to the supervisor of the BP Gulf oil spill cleanup crew who is in charge of collecting and verifying each and every OSHA compliance card.

Online OSHA safety training.com was created in 2006. Bobby Malhotra saw the need for an organized and highly-efficient method to not only list but offer all the OSHA required work and worker safety regulatory courses and tests. Article Source: