Oil consists of thousands of compounds, and its properties change drastically with time due to ambient factors. Therefore, understanding oil spills requires not only understanding the properties of oil but understanding of the forcing factors. We present the factors that we addressed in mitigating the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. For the DWH, we present the mechanisms affecting the formation of oil droplets from blowouts including our recent experimental work on oil release in experimental wavetanks. Our contribution includes the development of a new oil droplet model, VDROP, that accounts both for the viscosity of oil and the oil-water interfacial area in resisting breakup. For the Exxon Valdez, we present our results on the persistence and bioremediation of the spill. We also dedicate time to discuss our recent work on characterizing groundwater hydraulics in beaches subjected to waves, and we provide correlations for beach infiltration that could be used for time upscaling of the effects of waves.
