It is regarded as the largest marine oil spill in history, having contaminated about 68, square miles of the Gulf, killing 11 crew members and leaving a devastating impact on the thousands of species that inhabited the surrounding waters. The oil well was located more than 18, feet below sea level and operated in water depths of up to 5, feet. On the night of 20 April, , natural gas shot through the concrete core of the well, which had been recently installed by Halliburton, before expanding into the drill riser and into rig, where it ignited and exploded.
Most workers were rescued by lifeboats or helicopters, but 11 crew members were not found, and were later judged to have died in the aftermath of the explosion. The rig sank to the lower depths of the ocean two days later, the same day that BP claimed to have found the cause of the oil leak.
In May , Transocean began drilling two relief wells, which are intended to intersect an oil or gas well that has experienced a blowout. After leaking for 87 days, BP estimated that there had been a flow rate of between 1, and 5, barrels per day bpd.
But the Flow Rate Technical Group FRTG — a group of scientists and engineers from the US federal government, universities, and research institutions brought together for an official scientific-based estimate — claimed the initial flow rate was in fact 62, bpd — giving an overall total of 4.
BP and other companies tend to measure safety and environmental compliance on a day-to-day, checklist basis, to the point of basing executive bonuses on those metrics. But even if worker accident rates fall to zero, that may reveal nothing about the risk of a major disaster. Bankers were paid big bonuses for risks taken this year or next year, but the real risks came home to roost years later.
That assumption — that catastrophic risks were so unlikely they were unworthy of serious attention — appears to have driven a lot of the government decision-making on drilling as well. Since the s, the MMS has routinely granted a blanket exemption from doing a comprehensive environmental impact statement to individual drilling operations, according to Holly Doremus, a professor of environmental law at Berkeley.
It was based on several analyses that downplayed the risks of a major oil spill. Energy companies have aggressively lobbied to avoid formally analyzing worst-case scenarios since the Carter administration first required them in instances where there was uncertainty about the risk of disaster.
And what if it happened during a bout of bad weather when the spill might reach the shore? The evidence shows MMS has not taken an aggressive stance policing offshore drilling. Based on experience with malfunctioning blowout preventers, for instance, the MMS did suggest that energy companies install backup devices for triggering them.
But it was only a suggestion, not a requirement, and U. MMS has also been plagued by scandals in recent years, including one in which eight employees were disciplined for partying, having sex with, and receiving expensive gifts from their energy industry counterparts. Oil began spilling from the well and did not stop for 87 days. The Deepwater Horizon spill is considered the largest marine oil spill in history, according to the U.
Environmental Protection Agency. Court proceedings following the spill estimated that 3. People in the United States watched the entire disaster unfold on the news. By June, a Pew Research Center survey showed that more people opposed the government allowing more offshore oil and gas drilling in U.
Related: BP oil spill changed some minds on environmental issues. In the weeks following the explosion and spill, environmental first responders and scientists tried several ways to reduce the harm to the environment, according to the U. They sprayed dispersants, liquids that help microbes break down oil; they set surface oil on fire to burn it up quickly, and surrounded oil with floating booms to prevent its spread; and they dispatched underwater chambers to contain leaking oil.
Meanwhile, BP made three attempts to cap the well before it was finally closed on Sept. Oil spill aftermath: Why baby dolphins may be rare in Gulf waters. Turtles' wayward travels may mean BP oil spill's impact was global. Coral miles away still show effects years after BP oil spill.
Experts are still researching the extent of the damage, but all contend that it is extensive and long-lasting. After the spill, images of oil-slicked birds and turtles filled the news, according to a analysis in The Journal of American History. Oiled animals may die because they can't fly or swim well, which can exhaust them and make them vulnerable to predators, according to NOAA.
NOAA researchers found that at least 14, sea turtles and hatchlings died because of the spill. Every species of crustacean in the Gulf was exposed to the oil, and many dolphins and whales suffered injuries, the researchers found.
Oil can enter animals through their skin or orifices. This can be harmful and even deadly because hydrocarbons, in particular a type called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are toxic to animals, according to Isabel Romero, an organic geochemist and research assistant at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida. Romero has found these compounds in deepwater fish species that live in the Gulf.
But much of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill mixed with microalgae and marine debris and then sunk to the seafloor, Romero explained, and chemicals from the oil can still be found in the sediments and animals at the bottom of the ocean. The effects of the spill also rippled through the economy, particularly on the Gulf Coast. The U. Department of the Interior temporarily halted offshore deepwater drilling for about 5 months after the spill.
The halt caused some wage and job losses, especially in Florida, according to a policy brief from a researcher at Harvard's Taubman Center for State and Local Government. However, jobs and wages increased in oil-intensive portions of Louisiana, which was the state closest to the spill. Hotels, restaurants and fishing charters along the Gulf Coast lost business as tourists cancelled their trips, according to a study by the U.
Department of the Interior. But tourism rebounded by , possibly because of the marketing money BP gave the affected communities, The Times-Picayune reported. The explosion and spill launched a tangled web of legal lawsuits against BP, TransOcean, Halliburton and Anadarko, an oil company BP partnered with on the well.
The settlement covered a civil penalty, natural resource damages and economic claims, among other charges, according to the U. Department of Justice.
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