Certain techniques described above such as low-pressure flushing and vacuum pumping can disrupt and cause long term damage to sensitive microbial environments such as marshes and wetlands [3]. [315], The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released a final report on 5 January 2011. Deepwater Horizon. [137][138] On 19 May, the EPA gave BP 24hours to choose less toxic alternatives to Corexit from the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule, and begin applying them within 72 hours of EPA approval or provide a detailed reasoning why no approved products met the standards. The remaining 20 percent, or $1.33 billion, went to The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, a general government fund established in 1986 to aid in oil spill removal and assessment of the damage they have caused. [122] The EPA expressed concern that the booms would threaten wildlife. In their statement the DOJ said that some of BP's arguments were "plainly misleading" and that the court should ignore BP's The study was published in the April 2016 Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. This coalition gained significant influence in the clean-up of the oil spill to try to gain some control over the situation. The explosion Oil sheencould be seen on the surface of the water covering up to 180 000km2 [3] . 1752 N St. NW. [235][236], Mike Robicheux, a Louisiana physician, described the situation as "the biggest public health crisis from a chemical poisoning in the history of this country. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Coastal Wetland and Wildlife Impacts and Response - M. Lynne Corn - Google Books Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More Calendar Translate Mobile Books. One year after the notorious BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and two decades after the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska the scientific lesson is clear - microbes matter! Responding to the report, Transocean and Halliburton placed all blame on BP. [310] Also the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce conducted a number of hearings, including hearings of Tony Hayward and heads of Anadarko and Mitsui's exploration unit. It was largely settled when a Federal District judge approved the, That 80 percent resulted in $5.3 billion going to the, The remaining 20 percent, or $1.33 billion, went to, The National Academy of Sciences received $500 million to create the, The National Fish and Wildlife Foundations received $2.544 billion for its, NOAA led development of the preliminary restoration planning, along with the U.S. Based on 16S rRNA gene community analysis, the most prominent group of hydrocarbon degraders detected at contaminated sites were from the genus Pseudomonas [9]. One study projects that the overall impact of lost or degraded commercial, recreational, and mariculture fisheries in the Gulf could be $8.7billion by 2020, with a potential loss of 22,000 jobs over the same time frame. The Deepwater Horizon spill resulted in the largest natural resource damage assessment ever undertaken. "Big price tag for recovery of Gulf Coast", "Potential Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill on Tourism", "New Offshore Oil Drilling Must Have Safeguards, Obama Says", "Back to Work Coalition Established to Address Federal Permitting Issues", "Obama Ends Ban On East Coast Offshore Drilling", "Citing BP oil spill, Schwarzenegger drops offshore drilling plan", "California's Schwarzenegger turns against oil drilling", "Fla. governor calls special oil drilling session", "Party-line vote ends Florida's oil drilling ban special session", "Statement by the President on the Economy and the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico", "Full text of President Obama's BP Oil Spill speech", "Rand Paul: Obama BP criticism 'un-American', "Barack Obama's attacks on BP hurting British pensioners", "Memorial Day protest of BP held at Clearwater station", "Protest held near BP gas station in Bloomington", "More than a thousand people attend rally against BP and the government", "APNewsBreak: Trade group says BP to give cash to gas stations due to lost sales from boycotts", "Oil spill commission, lobbying group at odds over industry's credibility", "API response to commission report: "We've made progress to improve safety", "Oil and gas industry creates offshore safety institute", "British companies' reputation in the US is under threat, warns Washington overseas investment group", "Executive Order 13547 --Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes", "Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life", "BP Boss Admits Job on the Line over Gulf oil spill", "Another Torrent BP Works to Stem: Its C.E.O. [353], In September 2014, Halliburton agreed to settle a large percentage of legal claims against it by paying $1.1billion into a trust by way of three installments over two years. Observe fireboat responding to crews battling the fire during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, See how wire entanglement inside a well bore mitigates the effects of blowout preventer failure in an oil well. This places stress on many marine and shore habitats by placing an imbalance of nutrients through decreasing the amount of oxygen in the environment, since most petroleum degradation are aerobic processes. [10] Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. Construction of two such wells had begun in May. The settlement includes: Up to an additional $700 million to respond to natural resource damages unknown at the time of the agreement, and for adaptive management. The time an ecosystem takes to recover from an oil spill depends on its size. [230][231], On 12 April 2016, a research team reported that 88 percent of about 360 baby or stillborn dolphins within the spill area "had abnormal or under-developed lungs", compared to 15 percent in other areas. ", "OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH. [58] As of December2012[update], 339mi (546km) of coastline remain subject to evaluation and/or cleanup operations. [326][327] Until this more than one million claims of 220,000 individual and business claimants were processed and more than $6.2billion was paid out from the fund. How can we best prepare to respond to such an event in this challenging environment? [72][73] Next, it placed a 125-tonne (280,000lb) containment dome over the largest leak and piped the oil to a storage vessel. "Health of Exxon Valdez cleanup workers was never studied". In July 2010, it was reported that the spill was "already having a 'devastating' effect on marine life in the Gulf". '"[341] The Court then went further, calling BP's position "nonsensical. Since then, we have worked with the public and BP to identify and implement early restoration projects. For example, genes for hydrocarbon degradation (ex: alkB) are found in uncontaminated samples from the Gulf of Mexico more commonly than in other regions around the world. NOAA led development of the preliminary restoration planning, along with the U.S. [127][128][129], A 2011 analysis conducted by Earthjustice and Toxipedia showed that the dispersant could contain cancer-causing agents, hazardous toxins and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Following a five-year evaluation of the damage, the Trustees issued a plan in 2016 to restore the Gulf and allocate funds from the settlement with BP. [59][162] By mid-September, other research claimed that microbes mainly digested natural gas rather than oil. On beaches the main techniques were sifting sand, removing tar balls, and digging out tar mats manually or by using mechanical devices. Fortunately, unlike higher organisms that are adversely impacted by oil spills, microorganisms are able to . . [173] Notwithstanding restrictions, there were 800 to 1,000flights per day during the operations. Study to Examine Health Effects in 'Deepwater Horizon' Oil Spill Cleanup workers", "Exposing the human side of BP's oil spill", "BP Oil Spill Cleanup Workers Getting Sick, Exxon Valdez Survivor Warns of Long-Term Health Effects", Experts: Health Hazards in Gulf Warrant Evacuations, Health Hazard Evaluation of Deepwater Horizon Response Workers, "BP Reportedly Preventing Clean-Up Workers From Wearing Respirators", "Fisherman files restraining order against BP", "Petition Urges Obama Admin to Protect Gulf Spill Cleanup Workers", "OSHA Says Cleanup Workers Don't Need Respirators", "Coast Guard Photos Show Spill Workers Without Protective Gear", "What BP Doesn't Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill", "Investigation: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers", "Living on Earth: Research Update on the Impact of BP Oil Spill", "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill & Ecosystem Science Conference (2123 January 2013, New Orleans, LA)", "BP Deepwater Horizon spill: Scientists say seafood safe, but health effects being measured", "2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference", "2017 Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference". It was said that the U.S. was "dumping" the blame onto the British people and there were calls for British Prime Minister David Cameron to protect British interests in the United States. [252][253], A study that investigated the health effects among children in Louisiana and Florida living less than 10 miles from the coast found that more than a third of the parents reported physical or mental health symptoms among their children. An infamous example of this is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill . Rob Williams, et al. [60], Concerns were raised about the appearance of underwater, horizontally extended plumes of dissolved oil. [228] A 2015 study of the relative toxicity of oil and dispersants to coral also found that the dispersants were more toxic than the oil. Many local supporters were disappointed with BP's slow response, prompting the formation of The Florida Key Environmental Coalition. Fish and Wildlife Service and the. [303] The student body president expressed that students would be "very disappointed. On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. These projects allowed restoration of the Gulf to begin immediately. [172][177][178][179][180][181][182] In some cases photographers were granted access only with BP officials escorting them on BP-contracted boats and aircraft. An investigation of the possible causes of the explosion was launched on 22 April 2010 by the USCG and the Minerals Management Service. The fines from the criminal cases administered by the National Academies of Science offsite link and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation offsite link are used for two programs: After the spill, state and federal agencies undertook an intense scientific study of the impacts of the spill. Now, a team of American scientists led by Terry Hazen have shown that just a. The damage ranged from wetlands and beaches all the way down to the organisms on the sea floor. [79] On 3 June 2010, BP removed the damaged drilling riser from the top of the blowout preventer and covered the pipe by the cap which connected it to another riser. [319] Still another was for not plugging the pipe with cement. Phylogenetic Regular cleanup patrols were no longer considered justified but cleanup was being conducted on an as-needed basis, in response to public reports. A finding of gross negligence would result in a four-fold increase in the fines BP would have to pay for violating the federal Clean Water Act, and leave the company liable for punitive damages for private claims. 2. This included its own estimate of both the remaining business economic loss claims and the claims of businesses that opted out of the private settlement agreement, as well as the $20.8 billion settlement with the federal government and five states. BP officials deny that the disease conditions are related to the spill, saying that dolphin deaths actually began being reported before the BP oil spill. In June, 2016 BP announced offsite link that it had come up with its final estimate of the cost for the oil spill: $61.6 billion. Claims by several research groups that subsurface plumes of dispersed hydrocarbons had been detected in May were initially dismissed by BP and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). ", EPA slams Jindal's sand berm plan | wwltv.com New Orleans, "How can human hair mop up the oil spill? On October 5, 2015, we proposed a comprehensive, integrated, ecosystem restoration plan to address impacts from the spill to the Gulf of Mexico. [370][371], This article is about the oil spill itself. BP responded that the concentrations of oil in the study were a level rarely seen in the Gulf, but The New York Times reported that the BP statement was contradicted by the study.[19]. $7.1 billion for restoration stretching more than 15 years beginning in 2017. [53] In July, tarballs reached Grand Isle and the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The effects of a small spill can take 15 . With the damaged riser shorn from the LMRPthe top segment of the BOPthe cap was lowered into place. "[88] On 4 August 2010, BP began pumping cement from the top, sealing that part of the flow channel permanently. In the November 2012 resolution of the federal charges against it, BP agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of the 11 workers and paid a $4billion fine. [156] In mid-June 2010, BP ordered 32machines that separate oil and water, with each machine capable of extracting up to 2,000bbl/d (320m3/d). These traditional techniques are limited in effectiveness and are expensive due to the large area affected by the BP oil spill. [204] In March 2012, a definitive link was found between the death of a Gulf coral community and the spill. The United States federal government estimated the total discharge at 4,900Mbbl (210million USgal; 780,000m3). [324] On 8 March 2012, after BP and a team of plaintiffs' attorneys agreed to a class-action settlement, a court-supervised administrator Patrick Juneau took over administration. How did the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affect birds? [155] Due to use of Corexit the oil was too dispersed to collect, according to a spokesperson for shipowner TMT. "[297] In June, BP launched a PR campaign and successfully bid for several search terms related to the spill on Google and other search engines so that the first sponsored search result linked directly to the company's website. [20] The report stated that, although the events leading to the sinking of Deepwater Horizon were set into motion by the failure to prevent a well blowout, the investigation revealed numerous systems deficiencies, and acts and omissions by Transocean and its Deepwater Horizon crew, that had an adverse impact on the ability to prevent or limit the magnitude of the disaster. [20][21] Earlier in 2011, a White House commission likewise blamed BP and its partners for a series of cost cutting decisions and an inadequate safety system, but also concluded that the spill resulted from "systemic" root causes and "absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur". The CBS crew was told by the authorities: "this is BP's rules, not ours," when trying to film the area. [38][39] Ninety-four crew members were rescued by lifeboat or helicopter, 17 of whom were treated for injuries. [123], For a time, a group called Matter of Trust, citing insufficient availability of manufactured oil absorption booms, campaigned to encourage hair salons, dog groomers and sheep farmers to donate hair, fur and wool clippings, stuffed in pantyhose or tights, to help contain oil near impacted shores, a technique dating back to the Exxon Valdez disaster. [20], On 16 June 2010, after BP executives met with President Obama, BP announced and established the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), a $20billion fund to settle claims arising from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Investigation performed by trustees to identify injuries to natural resources caused by oil spills, hazardous substance releases, and grounding incidents in National Marine Sanctuaries, and plan restoration activities. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council, a joint federal, state and tribal body which oversaw the overall Natural Resource Damage Assessment.
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