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Oil spills
~
Pergamon PII: S0025--326X(97)00055-6
Oil Spills and Other Pollution Oil Spills, J. Burger. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Price $29.95, ISBN 0-8135-233890. Since the 1960s there have been scores, yes hundreds, of reported oil spills in North America and Europe. Others, often too remote to even report, occurred throughout Asia and the southern hemisphere. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) took note of the problem at the time of World War I. Because of the increasing sizes of tankers in the second half of this century and the greatly increased demand for petroleum products in the Western world, there was a concomitant increase in the number and extent of spills. Since the spills were truly more numerous, and much larger in areal coverage, ever more documentation of them was required, and came forth. Literally dozens of volumes presented findings and narrative as to how to avoid such incidents and how to clean up the aquatic environments involved. The first book on the subject to be widely distributed, read and referenced followed the grounding and sinking of the Torrey Canyon (Smith, 1968). This volume touched on much of what occurred with this event in the English Channel in 1967. One of the most recently released publications on a single event is the Proceedings of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium (Rice et al., 1996). To digest all of what followed the first ICES literature on oil spills and their effects, or even what came after the Torrey Canyon, would be a herculean task; yet one author has recently tackled this problem, and done a credible job. In her new book, Oil Spills, Joanna Burger has reviewed a dozen or so spills using two principle case studies, and several supplementary ones. Starting with her narrative on a relatively small spill, the 1990 Arthur Kill spill in the New York metropolitan area, she leads the reader through a nightmare comparable to the Exxon Valdez event in Alaska, 24 March 1989. Since she was involved in studies of both, she can vividly paint the pictures of oiled birds and crabs and lingering smells of crude oil and diesel. While her 'brief history of oil' is far from complete, it contains what most modern biologists and chemists would require to familiarize oneself with the events leading to and following any local, backyard (yes, back bay) incident. Following sections on history, the means and volumes of production, modes of transportation, and source of accidents and spills, the author elaborates on the special 1078
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 1078 1081, 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain 0025-326X/97 $17.00+0.00
history and scientific findings of the early oil spills, from the Torrey Canyon to the mid-1980s. Her paragraphs document five spills: the Torrey Canyon; the Ixtoc blowout in the Gulf of Mexico; and the inferno of the Castillo de Bellver west of Cape Town. Each of these spills caused messes and responses which were to be repeated in later years following the Arthur Kill event and the Exxon Valdez debacle. Yet all these, collectively, did not prepare the citizenry, government officials, and marine scientists for what was to transpire during the deliberate torching of oil fields during the Gulf War of 1990-1991, and the subsequent atmospheric, marine and terrestrial pollution events so well documented by TV and Professor Burger. Using these case studies, Burger than provides excellent summaries of initial responses to a spill, and how our various levels of government have tried to deal with what are sometimes dimensionless issues. What are the most appropriate steps to be taken to cleanup, rehabilitate and conduct a reasonably accurate damage assessment, especially when the responsible party is faced with scores of academic and government experts, maddening environmentalists, and untold numbers of contractors who want part of the action? What can one say to a fisherman who is losing his livelihood, or to a citizen who believes that she will never see another sunset with seals 'hauled out' to a clean, oil-free cobble beach? Burger touches nicely on these issues. Her last chapters concern the consequences of oiling for vegetation, birds and invertebrates, fisheries resources, and turtles and humans. The effects of a spill are directly related to where a spill might occur--open ocean or coastal promontory, water depths and temperature, type(s) of oil and wind direction and strength, abundances and types of flora and fauna, season of the year, amounts of petroleum spilled, and, to a large degree, change. The numbers of variables important in a model to predict the consequences and develop the absolute assessment are probably more than most computers can deal with today, or even for the foreseeable future. There is no doubt that we have learned enough to respond to spills in a far better manner than in the past--we have a general idea of the acceptable levels of detergents to apply or the temporal period to steam and where to apply the vapours. Perhaps most important, we know that oil spills injure and kill fish and wildlife, and that vegetation eliminated from the intertidal may take more than a few months to recover. We also know that relative to many man-induced disasters, oil spills are not at the top of the list; the hyperbole of many voices after spills fades away and the assessments become more accurate, and truly useful to management. Most importantly, we have learned something about avoiding spills in the first place.
Volume 34/Number 12/December 1997
Dr Joanna Burger's small volume is a useful contribution which can serve as a preliminary reference for the professional and an excellent text for the intermediate student in an environmental curriculum. I recommend it as reading for the objective scientist and citizen. Rice, S. D., Spies, R., Wolfe, D. and Wright, B. (eds) (1996) Proceedings of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD. Smith, J. E. (ed) (1968) 'Torrey Canyon' Pollution and Marine Life. Cambridge University Press, UK.
Pullution Science, I. L. Pepper, C. S. Gerba and M. L.
Brusseau (eds). Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA, 1996. Price $59.95, ISBN 0-12-550660-0. Over the past two decades, I have often had colleagues ask me if I was aware of a textbook applicable to a course in marine pollution or pollution ecology. Generally I've said no, and then provided a list of reprints or reports that might be useful to either an undergraduate or graduate student body. Now there is a general textbook available which covers pollution of the atmosphere, surface waters and soils and groundwaters. Several chapters are written by the principal editors, with experts in a range of disciplines writing those sections dealing with their special expertise. While the book is not a text or treatise on marine pollution, per se, it is so organized as to allow the reader, reviewer or student to bridge it to almost all aspects of marine or freshwater pollution. As most professionals know, with few exceptions, streams, lakes and ocean do not pollute themselves. Invariably water bodies are usually at the receiving end of a large number of events which culminate as a result of man's activities, be they domestic, industrial or transportation. The narrative is organized into four parts: processes affecting fate and transport of contaminants; monitoring and remediation of pollution; sources, extent and characteristics of pollution; and risk assessment and management. The first, introductory chapter, deals with the extent of global pollution--what are the underlying causes? How do various compartments of the environment function and interlink? And what are the interrelationships between human population size and pollution in terrestrial and aquatic habitats? Having set the stage, the authors consider the basic nature of soils and the effects of pollution on them. How do the winds (and oceans) transport contaminants and what are the various forms of biological activities in soils and water? By the end of chapter four the informed reader realizes that this textbook is rapidly moving well beyond freshman biology and junior level chemistry. Moreover, while sometimes distracting, the reader is thankful for the use of the British Decimal System which neatly compartmentalizes thoughts and topics.
Also, by this time the serious, or casual, reader will have grown to appreciate the scores and even hundreds of well-executed coloured figures, graphs and tables. Like its subject matter, the book is not static, always emphasizing the dynamic nature of ecology (and consequently of pollution/contamination and their effects). The sections on biology and chemistry are clear and emphasize changes and effects; no more sole discussion of parts per million of a trace metal, but rather what is happening and what are the likely consequences given our knowledge from case studies! Part 2 begins as it should with a review of the statistics used in pollution science, and then phases into environmental monitoring, various kinds of purposeful waste disposal, and, finally, a chapter on remediation with, interestingly, a case study based on the Exxon Valdez sinking. Part 3 provides further insights into atmospheric and surface water pollution. The latter chapter, on surface waters, unfortunately does not have sufficient pagination to cover adequately the requisite case studies. The industrious professor or practising scientists should, however, be able to develop the appropriate case studies from the literature. One of the the negative aspects of the chapter is the apparent view that depth of water or distance from shore offers a known or well understood compartment into which wastes may be discharged. There is even a 'gee-whiz' note about pipelines being used to carry excess carbon dioxide as a liquid to the seafloor, where ' . . . it can be retained for a long-time---conceivably long enough to help reduce the rate of global warming'. Oh, if only the sea floor and its circulation were so static! Much of the remainder of Part 3 is focused on various sources (fertilizers, animal wastes and eroded sediments) of pollution and the contaminants which make up the traditional mix of pollution as measured in most urbanized or developed regions of the globe. These are well written and informative with appropriate case studies; the section on pathogens uses cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee as an illustrative example of how ecology, unusual weather and (supposedly) an excellent water treatment system came together but with untoward results. Part 4, the concluding section, has an excellent introduction (chapter) to toxicology and risk assessment procedures. It also very briefly reviews current US state and federal laws and regulations, especially as these relate to the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts (but generally not as these have been recently amended). The final chapter asks the seminal questions: how clean is clean? What is the role of government and who is responsible? And, finally, what is being done today? Recognizing that in the US, in 1996, some 40% of its lakes and waters are unfit for swimming or drinking purposes, will this figure approach 50% in the new century? Given this question, what will the environmental planning be for the 21st century: what's next? 1079
Pergamon PII: S0025--326X(97)00055-6
Oil Spills and Other Pollution Oil Spills, J. Burger. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Price $29.95, ISBN 0-8135-233890. Since the 1960s there have been scores, yes hundreds, of reported oil spills in North America and Europe. Others, often too remote to even report, occurred throughout Asia and the southern hemisphere. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) took note of the problem at the time of World War I. Because of the increasing sizes of tankers in the second half of this century and the greatly increased demand for petroleum products in the Western world, there was a concomitant increase in the number and extent of spills. Since the spills were truly more numerous, and much larger in areal coverage, ever more documentation of them was required, and came forth. Literally dozens of volumes presented findings and narrative as to how to avoid such incidents and how to clean up the aquatic environments involved. The first book on the subject to be widely distributed, read and referenced followed the grounding and sinking of the Torrey Canyon (Smith, 1968). This volume touched on much of what occurred with this event in the English Channel in 1967. One of the most recently released publications on a single event is the Proceedings of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium (Rice et al., 1996). To digest all of what followed the first ICES literature on oil spills and their effects, or even what came after the Torrey Canyon, would be a herculean task; yet one author has recently tackled this problem, and done a credible job. In her new book, Oil Spills, Joanna Burger has reviewed a dozen or so spills using two principle case studies, and several supplementary ones. Starting with her narrative on a relatively small spill, the 1990 Arthur Kill spill in the New York metropolitan area, she leads the reader through a nightmare comparable to the Exxon Valdez event in Alaska, 24 March 1989. Since she was involved in studies of both, she can vividly paint the pictures of oiled birds and crabs and lingering smells of crude oil and diesel. While her 'brief history of oil' is far from complete, it contains what most modern biologists and chemists would require to familiarize oneself with the events leading to and following any local, backyard (yes, back bay) incident. Following sections on history, the means and volumes of production, modes of transportation, and source of accidents and spills, the author elaborates on the special 1078
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 1078 1081, 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain 0025-326X/97 $17.00+0.00
history and scientific findings of the early oil spills, from the Torrey Canyon to the mid-1980s. Her paragraphs document five spills: the Torrey Canyon; the Ixtoc blowout in the Gulf of Mexico; and the inferno of the Castillo de Bellver west of Cape Town. Each of these spills caused messes and responses which were to be repeated in later years following the Arthur Kill event and the Exxon Valdez debacle. Yet all these, collectively, did not prepare the citizenry, government officials, and marine scientists for what was to transpire during the deliberate torching of oil fields during the Gulf War of 1990-1991, and the subsequent atmospheric, marine and terrestrial pollution events so well documented by TV and Professor Burger. Using these case studies, Burger than provides excellent summaries of initial responses to a spill, and how our various levels of government have tried to deal with what are sometimes dimensionless issues. What are the most appropriate steps to be taken to cleanup, rehabilitate and conduct a reasonably accurate damage assessment, especially when the responsible party is faced with scores of academic and government experts, maddening environmentalists, and untold numbers of contractors who want part of the action? What can one say to a fisherman who is losing his livelihood, or to a citizen who believes that she will never see another sunset with seals 'hauled out' to a clean, oil-free cobble beach? Burger touches nicely on these issues. Her last chapters concern the consequences of oiling for vegetation, birds and invertebrates, fisheries resources, and turtles and humans. The effects of a spill are directly related to where a spill might occur--open ocean or coastal promontory, water depths and temperature, type(s) of oil and wind direction and strength, abundances and types of flora and fauna, season of the year, amounts of petroleum spilled, and, to a large degree, change. The numbers of variables important in a model to predict the consequences and develop the absolute assessment are probably more than most computers can deal with today, or even for the foreseeable future. There is no doubt that we have learned enough to respond to spills in a far better manner than in the past--we have a general idea of the acceptable levels of detergents to apply or the temporal period to steam and where to apply the vapours. Perhaps most important, we know that oil spills injure and kill fish and wildlife, and that vegetation eliminated from the intertidal may take more than a few months to recover. We also know that relative to many man-induced disasters, oil spills are not at the top of the list; the hyperbole of many voices after spills fades away and the assessments become more accurate, and truly useful to management. Most importantly, we have learned something about avoiding spills in the first place.
Volume 34/Number 12/December 1997
Dr Joanna Burger's small volume is a useful contribution which can serve as a preliminary reference for the professional and an excellent text for the intermediate student in an environmental curriculum. I recommend it as reading for the objective scientist and citizen. Rice, S. D., Spies, R., Wolfe, D. and Wright, B. (eds) (1996) Proceedings of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD. Smith, J. E. (ed) (1968) 'Torrey Canyon' Pollution and Marine Life. Cambridge University Press, UK.
Pullution Science, I. L. Pepper, C. S. Gerba and M. L.
Brusseau (eds). Academic Press, San Diego, CA, USA, 1996. Price $59.95, ISBN 0-12-550660-0. Over the past two decades, I have often had colleagues ask me if I was aware of a textbook applicable to a course in marine pollution or pollution ecology. Generally I've said no, and then provided a list of reprints or reports that might be useful to either an undergraduate or graduate student body. Now there is a general textbook available which covers pollution of the atmosphere, surface waters and soils and groundwaters. Several chapters are written by the principal editors, with experts in a range of disciplines writing those sections dealing with their special expertise. While the book is not a text or treatise on marine pollution, per se, it is so organized as to allow the reader, reviewer or student to bridge it to almost all aspects of marine or freshwater pollution. As most professionals know, with few exceptions, streams, lakes and ocean do not pollute themselves. Invariably water bodies are usually at the receiving end of a large number of events which culminate as a result of man's activities, be they domestic, industrial or transportation. The narrative is organized into four parts: processes affecting fate and transport of contaminants; monitoring and remediation of pollution; sources, extent and characteristics of pollution; and risk assessment and management. The first, introductory chapter, deals with the extent of global pollution--what are the underlying causes? How do various compartments of the environment function and interlink? And what are the interrelationships between human population size and pollution in terrestrial and aquatic habitats? Having set the stage, the authors consider the basic nature of soils and the effects of pollution on them. How do the winds (and oceans) transport contaminants and what are the various forms of biological activities in soils and water? By the end of chapter four the informed reader realizes that this textbook is rapidly moving well beyond freshman biology and junior level chemistry. Moreover, while sometimes distracting, the reader is thankful for the use of the British Decimal System which neatly compartmentalizes thoughts and topics.
Also, by this time the serious, or casual, reader will have grown to appreciate the scores and even hundreds of well-executed coloured figures, graphs and tables. Like its subject matter, the book is not static, always emphasizing the dynamic nature of ecology (and consequently of pollution/contamination and their effects). The sections on biology and chemistry are clear and emphasize changes and effects; no more sole discussion of parts per million of a trace metal, but rather what is happening and what are the likely consequences given our knowledge from case studies! Part 2 begins as it should with a review of the statistics used in pollution science, and then phases into environmental monitoring, various kinds of purposeful waste disposal, and, finally, a chapter on remediation with, interestingly, a case study based on the Exxon Valdez sinking. Part 3 provides further insights into atmospheric and surface water pollution. The latter chapter, on surface waters, unfortunately does not have sufficient pagination to cover adequately the requisite case studies. The industrious professor or practising scientists should, however, be able to develop the appropriate case studies from the literature. One of the the negative aspects of the chapter is the apparent view that depth of water or distance from shore offers a known or well understood compartment into which wastes may be discharged. There is even a 'gee-whiz' note about pipelines being used to carry excess carbon dioxide as a liquid to the seafloor, where ' . . . it can be retained for a long-time---conceivably long enough to help reduce the rate of global warming'. Oh, if only the sea floor and its circulation were so static! Much of the remainder of Part 3 is focused on various sources (fertilizers, animal wastes and eroded sediments) of pollution and the contaminants which make up the traditional mix of pollution as measured in most urbanized or developed regions of the globe. These are well written and informative with appropriate case studies; the section on pathogens uses cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee as an illustrative example of how ecology, unusual weather and (supposedly) an excellent water treatment system came together but with untoward results. Part 4, the concluding section, has an excellent introduction (chapter) to toxicology and risk assessment procedures. It also very briefly reviews current US state and federal laws and regulations, especially as these relate to the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts (but generally not as these have been recently amended). The final chapter asks the seminal questions: how clean is clean? What is the role of government and who is responsible? And, finally, what is being done today? Recognizing that in the US, in 1996, some 40% of its lakes and waters are unfit for swimming or drinking purposes, will this figure approach 50% in the new century? Given this question, what will the environmental planning be for the 21st century: what's next? 1079