Prompt: You are part of an investigative team that is helping select three cities to serve as import and/or export centers for petroleum: one on the Pacific coast, one on the Gulf coast, and one on the Atlantic coast. Your team of experts is looking into the economics of each of the possible sites. Your job is to identify local industries in each proposed city that depend on having a healthy environment for their success.

Materials:       Atlas      Economic information for possible city selections
                            Blank political map of the U.S.

Background:  An oil spill may result in unforeseen damage to industries and the community. Industries that depend on a healthy environment may be especially hard hit by an oil spill.

Task: You have been asked to develop a list of vulnerable industries so that this factor can be taken into account when competing sites are compared. A site that has few industries dependent upon water resources would presumably score higher on the variable than a site where industries rely heavily on the life in and around the water.

1. As a team, brainstorm a list of possible industries and natural resources that could suffer economic damage as a result of an oil spill. Place the list on two pieces of chart paper, one labeled Natural Resouces and one labeled Major Industries.

2. Locate and label each of the cities selected as possible sites and the states in which these sities are found.

3. As a team, review the columns titled Natural Resources and Major Industries and circle those that you agree would suffer damage due to an oil spill.

4. After careful examination by your team, select the three sites that you recommend should be eliminated from consideration because of the risk of economic damage to already well established industries that depend on the natural environment.

5. Write a team report of your findings. Include in your report any information that helps support your team's recommendatiuon.

6. To determine the impact an oil spill can have on a local area, have team members research several of the following oil spills that have occurred since 1989:
   a. Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, April 1989, 3.9 million gallons
   b. Houston Ship Channel, June 1989, 250,000 gallons
   c. Marragansett Bay, Rhode Island, June 1989, 420,000 gallons
   d. Delaware River, Clayton, Delaware, June 1989, 300,000 gallons
   e. Atlantic Ocean, off Morocco, December 1989, 20 million gallons
   f. Atlantic Ocean, off Madiera Island, Portugal, December 1989, 7.3 million gallons
   g. New York Harbor, New York, January 1990, 567,000 gallons
   h. Pacific Coast, off Huntington Beach, California, February 1990, 400,000 gallons

7. Include in your report suggestions for disaster preparation that might minimize the damage that an oil spill could cause to the community or the environment should one of your recommended sites be selected.
8. Report your team's findings to the class.


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