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The title of this case study has been carefully chosen to make the point that whilst oil spills at sea make 'good news stories', they contribute only a tiny amount of the oil that gets into our seas and oceans each year.
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363 million gallons of used oil end up in the sea. It comes from people pouring engine oil down the drain, from industrial waste pipes and from the oil that spills on our city roads (In a city of 5 million people, the oily road runoff that gets washed by the rain into the drains, could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill).
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137 million gallons of oil is washed into the sea each year by ships carrying out routine maintenance. Cleaning out the bilges and other ship operations releases only a few gallons each time but many thousands of ships carry out this maintenance procedure each year.
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92 million gallons of oil results from air pollution. Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the air and rain washes these hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans.
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62 million gallons of oil comes from natural seepage from the ocean bottom and from eroding sedimentary rocks which release oil.
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15 million gallons of oil comes from offshore oil production and results from spills and operational discharges.
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37 million gallons of oil end up in the sea from tanker accidents. These spills contribute only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans but the oil is released suddenly and in large quantities so one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles around.
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