Newswise — While the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill two decades ago, the lasting impacts of the spills could be markedly different, says Temple University Civil and Environmental Engineering Chair Michel Boufadel.
“It is a completely different environment in the Gulf of Mexico compared to Alaska’s Prince William Sound,” says Boufadel, an expert in oil spills and remediation. “The beaches in the Gulf are made of fine sand, so the oil might not penetrate deep into the beaches, but sand accumulation could shelter the oil until a major storm such a Katrina erode the sand and re-expose the oil.”
Boufadel, who is Director of Temple’s Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, has spent the past three years studying why an estimated 20,000 gallons of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill is still trapped in the gravelly beaches of the sound.
Boufadel is available to the news media to discuss the two oil spills, the environmental impact to the Gulf, as well as efforts to control and stop the spill.
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