How do you even begin to clean a coastline where each linear mile might be 20 miles of shore?

[Stinky The Clown]

Here's the Louisiana coast. It is tidal marsh. It is the nursery of life in the Gulf.



As bad as was the Exxon Valdez spill, the coast affected was relatively regular with, for the most part, a single wave line.



Not so the Louisiana coast. It is tidal marsh that connects to the famous bayous. The tidal water doesn't border that extreme coast a few miles up a single river. For each linear mile of coast, how many miles of actual shoreline are there? Five? Twenty? A hundred?

I can imagine washing a sand or gravel beach. I can't even contemplate the magnitude of steam cleaning such a fragile estuarial ecosystem.



It seems to me the coast in that part of the world is like a sponge that we will be saturating with oil for miles and miles inland. It will fairly absorb it. Drink it in as it takes one final draught of this horrible liquid.

And then it may die.

Mother Earth will be crying for years at what *WE* have wrought upon her. What *WE* have taken from her.



Yes, WE.

Mankind.

The good of us and the bad of us.

Our Mother, Earth.

[Electric Monk]

1. an inch at a time

x(

[dchill]

2. Oil-eating Microbes!

I shit you not.

http://microbes.wonderchem.com/

:shrug:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. They've been in use for decades. So has (the food additive) maltodextrin

I just don't know how we save that incredibly fragile ecosystem over that broad an area.

[FarCenter]

4. Crude oil degrades naturally

[Xipe Totec]

5. yes, that's why this oil deposit lasted all these millions of years

[FarCenter]

6. They were not exposed to air, sunlight, microbes, etc.

Each year we take about 20 million tons of asphalt (which is essentially the part of crude oil that can't be refined into something more valuable), mix it with sand and gravel, and roll it out on our streets and highways.

Asphalt is essentially the refineries' toxic waste, which, lucky for them, can be sold for road paving.

Over time, the asphalt degrades and has to be replaced, also lucky for them.

Lighter hydrocarbon molecules degrade sooner.

[Xipe Totec]

8. I'm so relieved. Let's have a shrimp cocktail to celebrate

You first.

[Tesha]

7. Over how many centuries? It's still very easily observed in Prince William Sound. (NT)

[FarCenter]

11. Probably less than 500 years

Fate of Crude Oil by the Combination of Photooxidation and Biodegradation

Abstract

Photooxidation and biodegradation are the two most important factors involved in the transformation of crude oil or its products that are released into a marine environment. Natural microbial populations in seawater biodegraded 28% of crude oil within 8 weeks at 20 °C when sufficient nutrients were supplied to the seawater. Photooxidation mainly affected the aromatic compounds in crude oil and converted them to polar species. This treatment increased the amount of crude-oil components susceptible to biodegradation, and 36% of photooxidized crude oil could be degraded in 8 weeks at 20 °C. It is concluded that the susceptibility of crude oil to biodegradation is increased by its photooxidation.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es991063o

---

it degrades pretty fast in sea water when exposed to light and microbes. I'd think that the lumpy stuff on shorelines would be gone in a few centuries. It may be slower in Alaska due to the low temperatures.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. That's reassuring. What's the half life? When is it gone?

You realize that oil is a preservative, right?

[flamingdem]

9. Teabaggers will still be pushing for drilling, mother who? nt

[truedelphi]

10. Oh for the loss of a nail, a kingdom was lost.

In this case, the $ 500 K needed improvement to keep the BP rig standing.

And the kingdom in this case, is Mother Nature's offspring, plant, animal and human (though not too smart or too humane.).

[jotsy]

12. leave it to the corporatocracy to break ground on a whole new level of mass murder.

Your image essay made me cry STC! The shame as a member of the human race I feel to see such opened ended and diverse damage we do to our home, our sibling species, and ultimately ourselves. What for doesn't matter, we now have what some of us knew we would, a price to pay that outweighs any benefit of convenience or commerce.

A teary eyed rec.