Recent Scenario Of Oil Spills In India Oil spills include any spill of crude oil or oil distilled products (e.g., gasoline, diesel fuels, jet fuels, kerosene, Stoddard solvent, hydraulic oils, lubricating oils) that can pollute the surface of the land, air, and water environments. Oil spill pollution may comprise a variety of amounts starting with one or more gallons of oil and up to millions or even hundreds of millions of gallons spilled. A marine oil spill is usually degraded fast since water is an excellent medium for dispersion, emulsifying and microbial degradation processes. An oil spill on the land may penetrate underground and move downward reaching eventually the groundwater. An oil spill in the underground (such as from pipelines or underground storage tank leaking) will likely affect the groundwater since the vertical traveling distance is reduced. Ennore Oil Spill-Chennai Coast: On 28th January at about 3:45 AM, two ships MT Dawn Kanchipuram and MT BW Maple collided, two nautical miles off the Kamarajar Port at Ennore, MT Dawn Kanchipuram suffered damages, spilling tonnes of fuel oil into the sea. ICMAM - Project Directorate, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) carried out a preliminary assessment survey on 29th January 2017 and it was apparent that the Oil was drifting southwards and the coast north of the Ennore was severely severel y affected (Fig.1).
Before and After the spill Figure1: Royapuram coast – Before
To monitor the Impact of Oil spill on coastal water quality the parameters analyzed are atmospheric (AT) and sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), Total pe troleum hydrocarbons (TPH), nutrients such as Phosphate (PO4), silicate (SiO3), Nitrate (NO3), Nitrite (NO2) and ammonia (NH4).The mean SST(sea surface temperature) was 25.6°C and salinity was 30.3 for Ennore Enno re offshore waters and the 3 specific gravity computed was 1021kg/m .Details of some parameters are as follows: Salinity ranged from 27.1 to 30.9 with an average of 30.3 of Chennai coastal waters. The average pH recorded for all the offshore stations of Chennai coast was 7.79 and ranged from 7.22 to 7.95. At shore stations DO varied from 5.87 to 7.98 mg/L with an average of 7.09 mg/L. Lowest DO at shore was recorded from AD which may be due to organic load and decomposition processes in the Adyar water. In coastal waters, it ranged from 0.05 to 9.07 µM (mean 0.93 µM) and maximum value was observed at fishing harbor. On shore stations silicate ranged from 4.59 to 173.63 µM (avg. 17. 38 µM). µ M). At shore stations phosphate ranged from 0.04 to 25.14 µM (mean 1.96 µ M). (www.icmam.gov.in/ospilMarch2017 ). The responsibility for co-ordination of marine oil spills at sea was transferred to the C oast Guard from the Directorate General of Shipping on 07 March 1986. Consequent to the transfer of responsibility, a draft National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Contingenc y Plan (NOS-DCP) was prepared by the th e Coast Guard on 14 April 1988. The NOS-DCP has been in operation since July 1996 and brings together the combined resources of: a. the Government of India including that of the Indian Coast Guard; b. the State Governments including emergency services; and c. the shipping, ports, and oil industries.
Saurabh Sharma (17RS061)
