Oil on the Surface of the Gulf of Mexico, 7 June 2010, Source: NASA Earth Observatory
The catastrophic oil leakage into the Gulf of Mexico would seem to be rather remote from issues to be discussed in the autumn course on water (though it may have direct bearing on the spring course when food supplies are to be examined; more on that at a later date), but the dangers from oil and gas spillage into bodies of water are not limited to salt water. There is a long and sad history of freshwater bodies contaminated by oil and gas leakage, and that history may have some additional catastrophic chapters before the age of hydrocarbons comes to its inevitable end. The dumping of raw petroleum and various byproducts was sadly common in the early years of oil exploration and exploitation in the United States, first in western Pennsylvania and Ohio and later in petroleum boom areas of California, Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere. More rigorous laws have forced the petroleum companies to use greater care, and large spills on land have been rare in North America over the past half century. Small spills, on the other hand, are quite common. Recently there have been a number of reports of spillage along the Alaska pipeline. Comparable cases could be found almost everywhere that petroleum and natural gas are found close to lakes and streams. Only a few of the spills are catastrophic, but even a small spill can upset the local ecology and render water unfit for human or domestic animal use.
The Delaware is one of America's iconic rivers, and it is also the most threatened by drilling for natural gas. It was recently named one of the most endangered rivers in the United States as gas wells have been sunk into the Marcellus Shale, a natural gas rich geological formation that stretches southward from central New York State into Pennsylvania. Last week a major accident occurred with a large quantity of material, including drilling muck, spread across some Pennsylvania forest land near the river. There has been relatively little public notice of the event, and it has not figured in news reports from the major media sources. The accident points to the substantial dangers inherent in drilling for gas and oil on land. As the American Rivers report indicates, the Delaware River, flowing to the Atlantic where there are important fishing grounds and passing through some of the most densely populated zones of the United States, could be the recipient of huge quantities of toxic material should a spill occur in its Pennsylvania or New York State watershed.
