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Oil spill's economic impact to affect Kansas Citians, too Kansas City Star The Gulf of Mexico oil spill — an environmental disaster of historic proportions that shows no sign of quick control — will squeeze the economy and affect … Oil spill could impact Chicago's seafood businessesABC7Chicago.com After Shares Recover, BP Says Official's Comments InaccurateWall Street Journal EPA launches Gulf oil spill website with up-to-date informationCreative Loafing Tampa (blog) Sport Fishing –Tips from the T-List –msnbc.com all 6,908 news articles »

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BP says it will pay for Gulf spill’s cleanup
BP PLC said Monday that it will pay for all the cleanup costs from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that could continue spewing crude for at least another week.

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Historically oil spills have posed a variety of environmental challenges during the cleanup process, resulting in prolonged, expensive campaigns to undo their effects.  The Exxon Valdez oil spill is perhaps the most prominent example in recent history, which resulted in a multi-year, multi-billion dollar cleanup in the Alaskan Gulf which continues to draw the ire of environmentalists and policy makers. As a result of this oil spill, environmental engineers have improved cleanup methods to the point that modern cleanups are much more efficient, while preventative measures increasingly ensure that large oil spills are unlikely to occur in the future. While there is still a risk of spills in transporting crude oil via tankers, modern cleanup methods are much more effective than previous generation methods.

One of the most common ways of cleaning an oil spill is to contain and collect the surface oil using advanced skimming technology. Early in the cycle of an oil spill, the oil will float near the surface of the water, which can then be contained using a variety of cordoning methods. Modern skimming technology helps remove oil in calm waters, although it remains a challenge to collect spills in moving or deep water spots.

In these cases of difficult containment, biologists have opted to use methods to improve the biodegradation of the oil to limit the effects of the oil that cannot be strictly contained. By breaking up the oil, the harm on the oceanic environment is limited; although scientists do point out that it still has harmful effects. In many cases, scientists break down the compounds (since oil is organic) by adding certain acids and compounds. The ideal result of the process is that the oil becomes a type of fertilizer which is more soluble and less harmful than direct oil products.

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British Petroleum says it will pay for Gulf oil spill’s cleanup
VENICE, La. – British Petroleum PLC said Monday that it will pay for all the cleanup costs from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that could continue spewing crude for at least another week.

Read more on Kitchener – Waterloo Record

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Here is a list of 10 major oil spills in history that caused severe oil pollution and irreparable damage to the ecosystem.

1. Amoco Cadiz – The Amoco Cadiz ran aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, France on March 16, 1978 due to stormy weather. Approximately 200 miles of the coastline was polluted as the entire cargo of 68.7 million gallons of oil was spilled into the sea.

2. Arabian Gulf Spills – About 900 million barrels of oil spilled into the Arabian Gulf as the Iraqi army destroyed tankers, oil terminals, and oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf war in January 1991, resulting in one of the largest oil spill disasters ever.

3. Exxon Valdez – In what is regarded as the largest oil spill disaster in American history, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 24, 1989, spilling 10.8 million gallons of oil. The cleanup alone cost $2.5 billion.

4. Ixtoc I – The exploratory well blew out on June 3, 1979 in the Gulf of Mexico and by the time the well was brought under control, 140 million gallons of oil had spilled. This is rated as No. 2 on the list of worst oil spill incidents on record.

5. Burmah Agate – The Burmah Agate collided with the Mimosa in Galveston harbor on November 1, 1979 to cause one of the most infamous marine oil spills.

6. Atlantic Empress – The Greek oil tanker Atlantic Empress was involved in two major oil spills when it collided with the Aegean Captain off Trinidad and Tobago during a tropical rainstorm on July 19, 1979. The spills together are the largest ship-based spill and the fourth largest total oil spill in history.

7. Argo Oil Merchant – On December 15, 1976 the Argo Merchant ran aground on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts spilling 7.7 million US gallons of fuel oil, enough to heat 18,000 homes for a year.

8. Prestige Oil Spill – The largest environmental disaster ever in Spain, the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige off the Galician coast on November 13, 2002 caused considerable damage to the local fishing industry.

9. Barge Bouchard 155 – Three ships, the barge Bouchard 155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255, collided in Tampa Bay, Florida, on August 10, 1993. The Bouchard 155 alone spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No.6 fuel oil.

10. Southeast Queensland – The cleanup efforts were estimated at a staggering A$100,000 dollars a day in one of the recent oil spill disasters, which occurred on March 11, 2009 off the coast of southeast Queensland.

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Florida’s Gulf Coast braces for oil spill’s impact
PERDIDO KEY — On one of the westernmost patches of Florida earth, the people of this beach community plucked litter from impossibly white sand — lipstick-stained cigarette butts, bottle caps, straws, plastic cups — in a frantic effort to protect the shoreline from an oil spill gushing in the Gulf of Mexico that is likely to arrive in days.

Read more on McClatchy Washington Bureau

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Gulf Coast dreads oil spill’s creep toward shores
President Barack Obama planned to visit the Gulf Coast on Sunday to assess the response to a massive oil slick that keeps growing and creeping toward American shores from Louisiana to Florida. There has been little success stemming the flow from the ruptured… Oil spill – Gulf of Mexico – Environment – BP – Energy

Read more on San Francisco Chronicle

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