The impacts of oil extraction in California Beaches

Due to the advancement and adoption of new technology, California discovered new oil fields around the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles. Additionally, this discovery necessitated dramatic demand increase for gasoline to operate trucks and automobiles as well as running heavy machines in industries. For example, in 1900 California extracted approximately 3. 8 million barrels, which equated to closely 4. 8% of the total national supply. California oil mining industry is the leading oil producing industry in U. S. The oil and oil products that are extracted from California barrels significantly contribute to the Gross Domestic Product of U. S. The importance or the usage of oil cannot be underestimated in any state especially industry-intensive or states with the potential of economic growth. At around 1920's, other new oil barrels were discovered across Southern California.

These included the fields near beach termed as Huntington, Long, Dominguez and the Santa Springs. Commutatively, these new oil fields culminated to increased oil production to about 76 million barrels. With this number of oil fields, Southern California became the hotbed for the oil extraction in U. S. Notably, the California oil extraction industry is supposed to follow and adhere to the stipulated environmental laws that govern the environment though they are not laterally adhered to. "The Clark Hot Water Extraction Process" has a more environmental impact compared to the proprietary extraction process through both significantly contribute to environmental degradation. The process of "The Clark Hot Water Extraction Process" includes the following steps; the underlying oil sand is extracted and crushed to reduce the size.

The sand is removed by heavy machines termed as excavators which greatly shake the earth which alternatively may trigger earthquakes. Alternatively, the crushing also has a great impact on the earth crust and the surrounding buildings. This by-product emits a lot of smoke which is dangerous to human life. In fact, it emits carbon monoxide which undoubtedly has detrimental repercussion to the environment (Ellis, 2010). Therefore, this product ought to be processed to a more refined product like crude oil which also calls for further processing of products like kerosene, petroleum, gas, and diesel. However, the increased demand for fossil fuels has facilitated degradation of California beaches and has significantly led to encroachment to new beaches with little concern for the environment.

The bitumen froth constitutes lot filth and thus it is very highly viscous and therefore cannot be transported. All those factors have culminated to an exploitation of California beaches. Moreover, the bitumen froth is mixed with a hydrocarbon to reduce the density and viscosity of the oil. This chemical hastens the settling of the froths by either through centrifugation and gravity. The bitumen is processed further to eliminate the entrained particles and water in order to meet the prerequisites of downstream pipelining and refineries. Most importantly, the discarded solids and water from the bitumen froth treatment process, the added chemicals, solids, the residual water, and the unwanted bitumen which collectively termed as middlings are disposed of the nearby tailing ponds. The disaster collapsed series of buildings in Compton and Santa Ana.

The Long Beach was hardly hit leading to loss of lives of many people. The area was generally affected by the earthquake which was triggered by the oil extraction activities in the Beach. This drastically affected the outlook of the environment and recorded the great loss of lives and property in of California. Crude oil extraction along the offshore of California beaches has triggered a lot of criticisms as far as conservation of environmental resources is concerned. This results to the climate change. The government of U. S through the oil regulatory body pinpointed above has enacted measures that lower the impact the oil extraction process has on the environment. The advocated measure that is being enacted currently is that water is being used to replace the mines or the pumped out oil which greatly avoids the land from tumbling or sinking hence environmental sustainability.