This month’s oil spill in California and the sinking of the X-Press Pearl off the coast of Sri Lanka in July have renewed attention to the environmental dangers of such disasters, especially the toll they take on marine and coral life. In this question and answer segment, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) explores the dire impact of oil spills, the cost of clean-ups and what can be done to limit damage to the environment and ecosystems. How do oil spills happen? There are many types of oil spills and most are minor, for example when oil spills from a ship when it is being refuelled. But serious incidents, like the 2020 oil spill in Mauritius, bring consequences that can be felt for decades. Most of the major oil spills happen when a pipeline breaks, a tanker sinks or runs aground or when a drilling operation goes wrong. Are some oil spills worse than others? Yes, not all oil spills are the same. Aside from the size of the spill, the type of oil or refined oil product will impact the severity of the spill. For example, gasoline is worse than crude oil as it is lighter and more toxic. In the Sri Lankan spill, the environmental issue was compounded as the ship was also carrying nurdles, small plastic pellets, that take thousands of years to degrade, as well as over 80 containers of various hazardous chemicals. The nurdles flooded beaches and turned up in the stomachs of fish, causing further environmental damage. The risk of bunker oil leaking remains and will only be put to rest once the shipwreck is removed from the sea. How can we prepare for future oil spills? Governments and the oil industry must have preparedness plans in place and understand what to do when an oil spill happens. Equally important is conducting regular spill response training exercises. The quicker and better prepared the reaction the less the environmental impact. Oil spill response can be tiered so that small spills are handled at a local level, larger spills are handled on a national level and major spills call on an international response. The Sri Lanka case also demonstrates the growing risks of growing global container shipping, and the need to prepare for complex incidents involving oil, hazardous chemical spills and other products
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