Identification

• An oil spill is an accident that occurs when a transport vehicle, whether it is a boat or a truck, spills part of its load, thus affecting the surrounding environment.
  
  

Types

• There are two types of oil spills: those occurring on land, and those in water. Land spills can usually be contained and cleaned up relatively easily, while oil spreads and becomes more dangerous in ocean spills.
  
  

Effects

• Oil spills affect the plants and animals that they come into contact with. When a spill occurs in the ocean, the oil floats and spreads quickly, becoming a hazard to marine life, to birds that land in it, and to shore animals that get caught in oil that washes ashore.
  
  

Response Groups

• A number of local, state, federal and volunteer civilian emergency response groups gather to clean up oil spills. They use skimmer boats, vacuums and chemical cleaning agents, among other tools.
  
  

Improved Technology

• The record for oil spills is improving. Only a small fraction of spills are ever caused by offshore oil drills, and modern technology has led to a substantial reduction in the incidence of oil spills in the past two decades.