Environmental Disasters: Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Thousands of animals soaked in oil and dying, beaches covered in oily
substance, smoke clouds forming as workers try to burn the oil off the surface
of the water. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was a disaster of massive
proportions that affected marine life, human health, the economy, and the law.
The causes of the spill, the explosion that started it, and the aftermath are
all important to understand so that we can ensure that a catastrophe such as
this never occurs again.
Deepwater Horizon was a 10-year old oil rig that was owned by
Transocean, the largest offshore drilling contractor in the world. It was
located on the Macondo well, an oil prospect approximately 41 miles off the
coast of Louisiana that BP owned a majority of. The well was 18,000 feet below
the seafloor in nearly 5,000 feet of water. At 9:46 pm CST on April 20, 2010, a
surge of natural gas burst through a concrete core that had recently been
installed by Halliburton, an oil field service company. Three minutes later at
9:49 pm, the rig started shaking violently. Seven minutes after that at 9:56
pm, a massive explosion engulfed the platform. Of the 126 workers that
were on the platform, 11 died and another 17 were injured. This was the start
of the largest marine oil spill in history, an event that would have an
enormous impact on the future of numerous aspects of American society.
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| Source: DW |
The causes of this tragedy are still widely debated, and blame continues
to be passed around. The Macondo well was always a risky project. Of the
thousands of drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, there are less than 50 that
operate in water greater than 1,000 feet deep, but Deepwater Horizon was
operating in nearly five times that, and deeper water comes with greater
challenges. To BP, the risk was worth it, for the well potentially contained 50
million barrels of oil, worth about US$5 billion. In contrast, BP was paying
only $500,000 a day to lease the rig from Transocean. While corporate greed
unquestionably played a part, government regulators are partly to blame as
well. When BP first wanted to drill on the Macondo well, “they asked for and
received permission from federal regulators to exempt the drilling project from
federal law that requires a rigorous type of environmental review” (Urbina).
More exemptions were granted regarding the testing of the blowout preventer, a
device that was supposed to seal the well and stop the uncontrolled flow of oil
that Deepwater Horizon experienced after the explosion. The volume of cement
used by Halliburton “was also kept to a bare
minimum to keep the height of the cement column as low as possible – reaching
only 500 ft above the uppermost hydrocarbon zone compared with BPs normal
guideline of 1,000 ft” (Maitland). If all of these corners had not been cut,
the chaos that unfolded may never have come about.
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| Source: NASA |
Regardless of who was at fault, the fact that the
effects were vast and destructive remains. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has
earned its place in history as one of America’s worst environmental disasters.
Over the weeks and months following April 20th, an entire ecosystem came
crashing down. In 87 days, 134 million gallons of oil were leaked into the
ocean. Thousands of plants and animals perished. It is “estimated that between
36000 to 670000 birds died in the offshore Gulf of Mexico as a result of exposure
to oil from the Deepwater Horizon, with the most likely number
near 200000” (Haney et al.). “Certain impacts are still understudied, such as effects on seagrass
communities. Concerns of long-term impacts remain for large fish species,
deep-sea corals, sea turtles, and cetaceans. These species and their habitats
should continue to receive attention (monitoring and research) for years to
come” (Beyer
et al.).
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| Source: Miami Herald |
Plants and animals weren’t the only things
harmed by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The
spill heavily affected human populations as well:
Since the Gulf oil spill began, there have been concerns about the extent to which related hazards, such as physical and chemical exposures and social and economic disruptions, will impact human health. In addition to concerns about the spill’s impact on the general population of the Gulf region, some populations are potentially at increased risk of short-and long-term physical and psychological health damage. The latter include clean-up workers and volunteers, who are exposed to extreme heat and fatigue, fishermen and -women, oil rig workers, and countless others, who wait to hear when and if they can go back to their livelihoods and their ways of life. (McCoy and Salerno 9)
The immediate health consequences of the spill included irritation of the eyes, respiratory problems, hypertension, nausea, skin irritation, burns, anxiety, and short-term memory loss. Long term health effects include cancers, liver and kidney diseases, mental health disorders, and neurological disorders. Sadly, a lot of these conditions are permanent. Many of the victims filed claims against BP,
seeking compensation for their health problems. BP settled hundreds of
thousands of these claims at a time, for billions of dollars. “The Medical
Benefits Settlement covers about 90,000 people who are qualifying cleanup
workers (out of an estimated 140,000) and 110,000 coastal residents living
within one-half to one mile of the coast (out of a coastal population of 21
million)” (Juhasz). It is estimated to have cost BP around $7.8 Billion. BP was
hit with other lawsuits too. In addition to the $32 billion in cleanup costs
that they were legally required to pay, BP faced lawsuits from numerous
government agencies. The company agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and plead
guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of the 11 workers in a
settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. A lawsuit by the four states
affected and the federal government resulted in BP paying $18.7 billion, the
largest environmental fine in U.S. history. Settlements with the families of
the workers killed in the explosion went as high as $8 million to $9 million.
Over the next few years, there have been many more lawsuits and settlements. In
total, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has cost BP about $70 billion. Offshore
drilling policy also changed. The federal government issued a 6-month
moratorium on offshore drilling in water greater than 500 ft deep, the sale of
new oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico was suspended, and there was an
immediate rise in investigations on oil rigs in the Gulf.
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| Source: Bloomberg |
The economic repercussions of the Deepwater
Horizon Oil Spill were staggering. People who worked in nearly every industry
you can imagine lost their livelihoods in a matter of weeks. “Examples of
economic damages associated with the oil spill include reductions in oil
drilling activity in the Gulf, restrictions on commercial fishing, and the
negative impact on the tourism industry in the Gulf Coast states” (L. C. Smith
et al. 16). It is estimated that the commercial fishing industry lost $4.36
billion, the tourism industry lost $3.8 billion, and $4.32 billion was lost in
real estate values.
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| Source: NOAA |
The impact that the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
had on our society, health, and planet is immeasurable. It killed off thousands
of plants and animals, started health problems for hundreds of thousands of
people, caused billions in economic loss, and sparked years of policy changes
regarding offshore drilling. The spill illustrated the magnitude of humans’
impact on the planet and how we must be careful in the future. It created a
level of environmental destruction that is unparalleled in American history and
hopefully will never have to be experienced again.
Sources
Beyer, Jonny, et al. "Environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: a review." Marine pollution bulletin 110.1 (2016): 28-51.
Haney, J. Christopher, Harold J. Geiger, and Jeffrey W. Short. "Bird mortality from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I. Exposure probability in the offshore Gulf of Mexico." Marine Ecology Progress Series 513 (2014): 225-237.
Juhasz, Antonia. “Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers.” The Nation, 29 June 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/archive/investigation
Maitland, Geoff. “Deepwater Horizon: As It Happened.” The Chemical Engineer, 26 Mar. 2020, http://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/deepwater-horizon-as-it-happened/
McCoy, Margaret A., and Judith A. Salerno. "Assessing the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on human health." Washington, DC: The National Academy of Sciences (2010).
Smith, Lawrence C., Murphy Smith, and Paul Ashcroft. "Analysis of environmental and economic damages from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill." Albany Law Review 74.1 (2011): 563-585.
Urbina, Ian. “In Gulf, It Was Unclear Who Was in Charge of Rig.” New York Times, 5 June 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06rig.html?auth=login-google.