10 Oil is extremely toxic to a wide variety of marine species, including marine birds, mammals and commercially important species of fish. Drill cuttings are pieces of rock ground by the bit and brought up from the well along with used mud. Massive amounts of waste muds and cuttings are generated by drilling operations an average of 180,000 gallons per well. Most of this waste is dumped untreated into surrounding waters. Drilling muds contain toxic metals, including mercury, lead and cadmium.
Offshore operations generate large amounts of produced water.
The Minerals Management Service estimates that each platform discharges hundreds of thousands of gallons of produced water every day. 13 Produced water typically contains a variety of toxic pollutants, including benzene, arsenic, lead, naphthalene, zinc and toluene, and can contain varying amounts of radioactive pollutants. All major field research programs investigating the fate and effects of produced water discharges have detected petroleum hydrocarbons, toxic metals and radium in the water column down-current from the discharge. NRDC supports increased utilization of natural gas in high efficiency combined combustion turbine for the generation of electricity. Energy efficiency should be the primary source of this incremental natural gas supply to the power sector.