As I often mention, I spent 6 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. I've seen first hand what a spill does to the environment. I know what crude oil looks like, smells like, and feels like. The first time I got some on my hands I thought it would never come off. It is nasty stuff, and we're not talking about cooking oil. The spills that I did witness were relatively small when compared to the 1989 Exxon Valdez - Prince William Sound and the 2010 British Petroleum - Gulf Oil Spills. But even the small spills I saw were devastating, so I can only imagine what these disasters must have looked like.
I know this though - crude oil in the water does NOT simply "dissipate" overnight or get gobbled up by their chemicals or bacteria. A great deal of it washes ashore where it either becomes a part of the environment or it is mopped up as much as possible by humans and then it is all disposed of in a landfill somewhere, still becoming a part of the environment, just not as obviously.
I believe the majority of it ends up on the sea bottom, and that's what I was telling people when the spill was still happening, but the amount washing ashore was not as bad as expected. Now scientists are discovering what I have already been saying. I have seen far too many images of dead ocean floors, with marine life smothered to death in a blanket of oil. Ever notice how vinegar and oil will separate into layers, with the heaviest going to the bottom?
BP promised to compensate the people who lost their livelihoods, businesses who could no longer do business, and everyone adversely affected by the oil spill. They promised to repair the damage and "make things right again." The U.S. Government made their promises too, including a promise to hold BP accountable. From everything I have read or seen in the news, BP still owes money to a lot of people and businesses; they were far too eager to call the job done and now appear to have abandoned clean up efforts entirely. They are off patting themselves on the back, figuring out how to work their taxes to best advantage. Meanwhile, the government hasn't done much of anything except make more empty promises.
A year later, and once again it is the struggling American that is paying the price for corporate greed and and our government's incompetence. Sadly, I would bet money that another major oil spill is not that far in our future. How long will it be before we are telling kids about the days when a person could actually go into the water and play?
Photo credit: Charlie Riedel/AP
