Presentation by Ed Overton on BP Oil Spill damage

1. Oil Spill Overview and Recommendations for Moving Forward Deepwater Horizon Oil Edward B. Overton, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Dept of Environmental Sciences School of Coast and Environment Louisiana State University Baton Rouge LA 70803 Exxon Valdez Oil

2. Deepwater Horizon Spill

3. Overview of the Spill Began April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico Capped on July 15, 2010 Estimates of 35,000-60,000 barrels of crude oil flowed from the well per day, covering 2,500 square miles >5M barrels of oil spilled – Largest spill in history >1M barrels of dispersant used at depth and on the surface Impact to people, environment, economy, and geology

5. 7721 miles of coastline in Louisiana

6. On Shore Oil

8. Offshore Oil

10. Thick, skimable, dispersible oil

11. Oil after dispersant application

14. oil on surface

15. dispersed oil at depth

17. dispersed weathered oils on surface

18. dispersed dissolved and modified oil at depth

20. Geological

21. Economic

22. SociologicalSource

23. The Effects of Weathering on Spilled Oil Days Weeks Months Surface Oil Weathering Sticky Floating Sinking? Gunky Floating Sinking Toxic & Sticky Floating Tarball Nuisance Loss of Light Ends Saturates and Aromatics Degraded Asphaltene Residue

24. Oxidation-replace H with more electronegative element Reduction- replace electronegative element with H Slow chlorocarbons O2 + microorganisms HYDROCARBONS “e” donor fast CO2 CH4 Oxidized form Reduced form aerobic anaerobic no O2 very very slow HYDROCARBONS Chlorocarbons “e” acceptor Fast (relatively!)

25. Three Scenarioswhat’s going to happen? Best Case No further leaks with little or no permanent effect to the environment and food chain Nature cleans environment with limited human intervention Worst Case could encompass one or more of the following: Further substantial leakage Long term changes to food chain Toxicity and oxygen depletion Most Likely Outcome Gulf spill follows the scenario set by the Valdez spill (gradual return 3-5 yrs) Variables: Environmental (temperature and weather) conditions Greater use of dispersants and ISB Depth of spill and dispersant use at depth Danger of over-remediation

26. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Recovery

27. Oil Weathering Exxon Valdez oil weathering sticky Toxic & sticky Tarball nuisance

28. Chemical Contamination Most of the oiled mussels were as clean as unoiled mussels by 1992-93 (3-4 years)

31. Mechanical

33. Areal Dispersant Application

34. Near shore skimmers

35. A Whale Ocean Skimmer?

36. Deeboom Jack Wood, Trustee The Wood Family Trust 21859 Angeli Place Grass Valley, CA 95949 530-320-7200 (Cell)

37. What do you do with this? Gulf Shores/Orange Beach July 17, 2010

38. Sand Berms

40. Routes of exposure

42. Understand ecology and impacts of releases at-depth

43. Catalogue and contact area experts in marine and coastal ecology, oceanography

44. Evaluate the tradeoff for offshore verses near-shore impacts

45. Evaluate the efficacy of offshore cleanup options

47. Understand the chemistry of various oils and their weathered products

48. Develop remote sensing for accurate detection of spreading oil patches

49. Develop contamination free at depth sampling and monitoring capability

50. Develop human health exposure risk for response and cleanup workers

51. Develop an understanding of impact on seafood and duration of seafood impacts

53. Develop cleanup skimming technology for offshore, near-shore and on-shore

54. Develop response technology use paradigms (skimming, dispersing, ISB)

55. Develop dispersing efficacy and impacts criteria

56. Understand impacts of dispersant use at depth and on the surface

57. Re-examine and re-engineer the safety features for well shutdown

58. Examine and evaluate Incident Command Structure

60. Remove as much residual oil as possible off the surface

61. Support natural recovery processes

62. Use portion of royalty income to partially response needs

63. Talk the talk, walk the walk as far as environmental health and safety is concerned

64. Develop a sensible energy policy for the US