Don’t confuse oily water collected with actual oil

In many oil spill reports, there will be the phrase “x gallons of oil water have been collected.”

Too often, this information will be skewed (often by the offending parties themselves) to make it appear that the spiller has got a handle on the cleanup.

For example, if 100,000 gallons of crude spill from an oil tanker, and 50,000 gallons of oil water have been recovered, then that means half of the crude is collected, right?

Wrong! One gallon of oily water does not equal one gallon of oil. This is diluted oil and the heavier the product, the more diluted the result. A good comparison can be coming snowfall totals into actual precipitation. Or better, comparing molasses to generic syrup.

So when you read that almost 50,000 gallons of oily water have been recovered from the Transocean Deepwater Horizon disaster, look at the big picture.

BP, are you listening?