The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is known as the largest oil spill in history. On April 20, 2010, the explosion of the oil rig killed 11 people working on it and resulted in underwater cameras revealing the British Petroleum pipe leaking of over 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. A long distance from the coastal line (approximately 42 miles from Louisiana) and the marine nature of the spill resulted in its longevity – the well was capped in only 87 days after the accident ("Oil Spill Gulf of Mexico 2010."). The scope of the spill was enormous – the oil spill estimated to be over 130 miles long and 70 miles wide impacted the coastlines of Florida, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi (Greenpeace).
The preconditions of the spill arose in July 2007 when a study of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service revealed that offshore oil drilling projects have reported numerous instances of fires, human deaths, and accidents (Greenpeace). In 2009, the MMS excluded British Petroleum from the National Environmental Policy Act requirement of submitting detailed reports on the environmental impact of oil drilling operations. The Washington Post’s reported that BP considered its exploration plan as one with low risks; therefore, BP will not take any additional measures to eliminate potential threats to the environment. Such claims were strongly supported by President Obama, who declared on April 2nd, 2010 that offshore rigs do not cause environmental problems due to their technological aspects (Greenpeace). Two weeks prior to the explosion, the Government Accountability Office reported that Department of Interior managers were carefully hiding the information about potential threats of the Deepwater Horizon project and the likelihood of oil spills (Greenpeace).
As a result of all this thread of faulty information and violations on April 20, 2010 the oil rig experienced a dysfunction. Its manual and emergency blowout preventers failed to function when combination of crude oil, gas, water, and mud erupted from the well and surged up the drill pipe. The Associated Press report showed high rates of the blowout preventer’s failure enhanced by the weakening legislature regulations and testing requirements (Brown). Such neglecting of safety measures resulted in sudden explosion at 9:45 PM and sinking of the rig on April 22nd, 2010 (Cleveland). The safety measures were taken by both governmental and non-governmental agencies right after explosion. The process was complicated by a small amount of public information and different estimates of the damage caused by explosion. By April 24th, 2010 BP officials and Coast Guard reported two leaks – “kink leak” and primary leaks that both released approximately 1,000 barrels a day without clear explanation of their calculation methodology. The next week, the output was increased up to 5,000 barrels a day as per NOAA scientists’ estimates. Non-governmental sector’s estimates were significantly higher – the SkyTruth.org used public access to satellite images and estimated the flow-rate to be up to 20,000 barrels a day. In May 2010, different sources of information including scientists reported the flow-rate to be up to 70,000 barrels a day (Cleveland).
The consequences of the oil spill are dramatic – over 8,000 animals were reported dead after the first 6 months of the catastrophe, the ecosystem of the region is severely damaged. There are still some places where oil layers can be found. The tragedy could have had bigger consequences for wildlife and coastline if not the amount of organizations and people working on damages’ reduction – over 30,000 people put their efforts to collect oil, clean the coastline, and perform other duties (DoSomething.org). The cleanup operation was conducted under the “unified command” established by the U.S. government. It included British Petroleum, Transocean, Mineral Management Service, NOAA, Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the Department of Interior, the Department of Defense, the Fish and Wildlife Service, etc. (Cleveland) The united command accumulated 6,300 vessels, 37,000 people, and 1.345 million gallons of dispersant to recover 25 million gallons of oily water and 13.5 million gallons of oil. The main methods of fighting the spill were using controlled burns and chemical dispersants. The first controlled burn was performed of April 28th, 2010, and by June 2010 this method helped to remove over 9.3 million gallons of oil from the open water. On the contrary, using dispersants was a risky and compromising decision between coastal habitats and water organisms’ safety (Cleveland).
As for the companies responsible for the spill, British Petroleum, Transocean Ltd, and Halliburton Energy Service were found guilty in accident, although differently. British Petroleum bears 67% of the blame, Transocean Ltd – 30%, and Halliburton Energy Service only 3% (The Guardian). This means that British Petroleum was obliged to pay approximately $17.6 billion of civil fines under the Clean Water Act under the reason “making for-profit decisions that resulted in blowout” (The Guardian). However, these are not the main expenses of British Petroleum. As the main body liable for the spill, BP took responsibility of the 11 men’s deaths and all spill-related costs. BP paid $4 billion of penalties as a part of a deal with Justice Department and additional $24 billion for cleaning (The Guardian).
Works Cited
Brown, Alanna. "The BP Oil Spill: What Happened And Who’s To Blame? | LuxEco Living." LuxEco Living. N.p., 1 June 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Cleveland, Cutler J. "Deepwater Horizon oil spill." Encyclopedia of Earth. N.p., 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. <www.eoearth.org/view/article/161185/>.
DoSomething.org. "11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill." N.p., Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Greenpeace. "BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill: Overview." Greenpeace.org. N.p., 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
The Guardian. "BP's reckless conduct caused Deepwater Horizon oil spill, judge rules | Environment | The Guardian." The Guardian. N.p., 4 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
"Oil Spill Gulf of Mexico 2010." Smithsonian Ocean Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
