Water incident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Water incident - Essay Example The company is no stranger to such incidents. It has been part of all major oil disasters in thee US for the last five years (Lustgartern). Since the explosion in the deep water rig causing death to 11 persons on April 20, 2010, the oil spill has continued to claim the lives of wild life; it has seriously threatened the travel and tourism plans of the region as well as affected the culture of the gulf coast. The oil rig that cme into causing an accident in the Gulf coast, The deep water horizon was a nine year old rig having a semi submersible mobile drilling unit.and a dynamic positioned drilling rig. The company has taken this rig on lease from Transocean. At the time of explosion, the rig was drilling an exploratory well at a depth of nearly 5000 feet under water The incident occurred on April 20 2010 at approximately 9.45pm. gas from the well under high pressure shot up and out of the well triggering into a huge explosion. Efforts made my ships to bring down the fire proved unsuccesful. The fire lasted for nearly 36 hours after which the platform sank to the deep waters. The spread of the oil was very rapid due to the strong southernly winds that was caused by the impending cold front. Five days from the blast, the spill spread to nearly 580 square miles. And was near to the ecologically sensitive Chandeleur Islands. By April 30, the spread widened to approximately 3850 square miles. The spill reached the Delta national wild life refuge and Bretton national wild life refuge. . By May 19 the spill reached the Loop current which flows around the Gulf of Mexico. It was found that about 35% of the oil leaked would evaporate, 50% will remain in the water and the rest would be dissolved in the ocean. It was also estimated that most of the oil would be floating within one foot of the surface of the water causing serious environmental damage to all living organisms. The