There are many activities that can contribute to the contamination and pollution of soils. One of the most commented issues nowadays is the extraction of fossil fuels and its consequences to the land and water, in case of disasters.
Oil spill disasters are dangerous in many ways. As the Semper Parata blog explains, some of the consequences of that in the soil are its toxicity that can kill a large amount of plants and organisms, the decrease of oxygen, and it can make the soil an inhospitable environment, which means the disability of soil to provide the necessary characteristics to plants to grow.
It is true that pipelines are usually localized in outlying areas, but a disaster can spread in the environment and cause problems in different levels. For example, the InForum website informs that the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has investigated the leak of oil a pipeline that runs through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. This contamination can affect the soil directly, causing the land to be infertile immediately, but also, many organisms can eat other organisms and plants around the area that are contaminated and bioacumulate the contamination.. In this cycle, other organisms will be affected indirectly.
Therefore, it is necessary that companies work with the utmost care and respect for the environment. In order to achieve a safe way to practice activities such as oil extraction, regulations should be more strict and research agencies should work with remediation. There is not an easy way to deal with those situations, but information to companies and population about the problem must be the first step.
References:
http://www.inforum.com/news/4004074-investigation-continues-keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-south-dakota
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