David Gonzalez
Research Paper
Prof. Zayas
ENG 21003

Disarray and Destruction: Chemical Spill Effects

Destruction, regardless of the form that it tends to come, always creates disarray and disparity as the lasting effect of it. Such destruction can always be something that is out of our control, something beyond our physical ability to prevent. But sometimes we do have the ability to prevent such destruction and prevent a negative outcome from occurring. Such a thing can be said when it comes to Chemical Spills. Chemical spills have become a detrimental and negatively impacting event that has become more and more frequent within the past few decades. Such spills can vary from different types of chemical such as oil, petroleum, hazardous chemicals and even the potential of biological chemicals from spilling.
Chemical spills have typically occurred most in bodies of water whether it is fresh water bodies or salt water bodies, it has been more of a frequent event in such areas. Some reasoning behind such spills on water occurring has to do with the ability to transport set items across water and the overall stability of it can become jeopardized at any moment’s notice. Within this research paper, it will explain primarily the detrimental effects that chemical spills have on freshwater bodies but also saltwater bodies and the ecosystem and environment is affected. Such an effect ranges from the wildlife that could possibly be living there up to any humans that are found in that area as well. Also it should be said that chemical spills on land will not be left out as it is also essential to understanding and grasping the idea of how detrimental chemical spills can be overall regardless of where it happens.
To understand the danger of a chemical spill and how there can be an overall negative effect on the environment, we must first be able to understand what a chemical spill truly is and how it can sometimes range in severity depending on how it occurs. In Mary Mcmahon’s article titled What is a Chemical Spill? It discusses how in simple terms “A chemical spill is a situation in which a chemical is accidentally released.”(McMahon, 2023) Based on this we can interpret how chemical spills tend to accidentally release without any on purpose intent. Later, on it will be shown how that has been the case in many situations in which chemical spills have occurred. Later on, McMahon goes on to state how “spills of toxic chemicals represent a more serious problem, especially in the case of spills of multiple chemicals which could react with each other.”(McMahon, 2023) Chemical spills that involve any type of toxic chemicals are much far worse than others because with the mixture of it with other chemicals it can create a more devastating scene.  So here we are able to understand how regardless chemical spills are still a bad thing to have to occur in an ecosystem but it becomes much of a devastating thing when there are multiple chemicals that are combined.