Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Since Deepwater Horizon, we’ve taken two steps forward and one step back, and that one step back is worrying because we could very much end up in a similar situation - Lee Ashley.
image by: Wolfram Burner
HWN Suggests
They cleaned up BP’s massive oil spill. Now they’re sick – and want justice
The valor displayed by cleanup workers was comparable to the heroism of first responders during the 9/11 terror attacks, who ran to the World Trade Center to save people and breathed in toxic dust and fumes, said the Alaska toxicologist Riki Ott, who became involved in advocating for oil spill cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. “What resident and professional oil spill responders do is exactly what professional firefighters and emergency responders everywhere do: put their lives on the line to protect ours,” she said.
But while those who responded to the deadliest single terror attack in American history have been rightly cemented into public memory, coastal…
Featured
Blame BP for Deepwater Horizon. But Direct Your Outrage to the Actual Mistake.
It was years of cutting corners, not one careless mistake, that caused the explosion.
On This Day: Deepwater Horizon - The Most Devastating Environmental Disaster
Examining the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the subsequent oil spill, and the far-reaching consequences on marine life, coastal ecosystems, and the regional economy.
Articles of Interest
The Biggest Environmental Disaster in U.S. History Never Really Ended
After the spill, thousands of oilfield workers, fishers, and coastal residents stepped in to help with the cleanup. Many of those workers were not fitted with appropriate personal protective equipment like respirators, and were exposed to crude oil and to a potentially hazardous chemical product called Corexit.
Yes, Deepwater Horizon Oil Did Enter the Food Chain
Along with the death of scores of marine animals and seabirds, one of the main concerns during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the impact on the food chain. A new study clarifies that impact: Hydrocarbons from the Macondo well trickled into the ocean food chain via its tiniest members, zooplankton.
A Decade After Deepwater Horizon
Rolling back regulations ignores the central lessons from the country’s largest oil spill.
A decade after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, offshore drilling is still unsafe
Before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the deep Gulf of Mexico ecosystem was egregiously understudied in all respects, while a multi-billion-dollar industry. intruded into it. Now scientists know much more about what happens when large quantities of oil and gas are released in a seafloor blowout. Scientists learned much about the effects of the spill through monitoring the blowout, assessing damages to natural resources and investigating the fate and effects of escaping oil. More has been spent on these studies and more results published than for any previous oil spill.
After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The Great Invisible reveals what happened to the victims.
Bacteria Ate All the Methane From the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, New Study Says
Following the greatest environmental catastrophe in recent history, the lowest life forms among us have been the biggest heroes. Once...
Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life
Lingering oil residues have altered the basic building blocks of life in the ocean by reducing biodiversity in sites closest to the spill, which occurred when a BP drilling rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing about 4m barrels of oil into the Gulf.
Dispersants sprayed in wake of Deepwater Horizon oil spill more toxic than oil alone
We believe exposure to the dispersant used during the Deepwater Horizon clean-up efforts may be more toxic to the corals than the crude oil initially released. Moreover, adding dispersant to oil will increase the concentration of oil in the surrounding water. That can then lead to higher, more toxic exposures of oil components upon contact with marine life.
Double, double, oil and trouble
What America has learned from its largest-ever spill.
How Oil Spill Changed Public Opinion on Offshore Drilling
How many think environmentalists caused the spill?
Kevin Costner’s Other Waterworld - Cleaning up the BP oil spill
After 40 days and many failed attempts at cleaning up the 210,000 gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico every day, British Petroleum has found their knight in shining water...Kevin Costner.
Oops! Deepwater Horizon Dispersants Backfired
They were supposed to help microbes digest oil, but ended up suppressing the oil-degrading species instead.
Ten Years After Deepwater Horizon, U.S. Is Still Vulnerable to Catastrophic Spills
“We very well could have a disaster equal to or greater than the one ten years ago, and that would be a tragedy because we know what can happen, and yet we didn’t take the steps that were necessary to address that risk,” he said. “It will probably be our epitaph.”
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill ruined long-term shore stability
Satellite images reveal the loss of marsh grass that shores up Louisiana’s coastline.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Through the Lens of Human Health and the Ecosystem
The DWH oil spill affected a uniquely vulnerable population: unlike some other large oi-spills, the unique vulnerability of communities living on the US Gulf coast is rooted in a risk paradigm of three intersecting domains with synergistic impact- a historic burden of health disparities, persistent environmental health threats, and residence in a geographic area prone to both natural and technologic disasters.
We still don’t know the full impacts of the BP oil spill, 10 years later
The spill drove a push in science and some changes in regulations, but the dangers of offshore drilling remain.
What Caused the Worst Oil Spill in American History
Investigators are still exploring exactly what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon, but the catastrophe seems to have been the result of a cascading series of failures–and too little oversight.
Where Did the Oil from the Deepwater Horizon Spill Go?
The public’s focus eventually turned away from the 2010 disaster. Scientists, however, are still learning the scale of the devastation.
‘Deepwater Horizon’ honors oil rig workers but oversimplifies the blowout
When I went to see the movie “Deepwater Horizon” with some of my graduate students last week, I did not expect accuracy. Drilling for oil and gas is not typically viewed favorably or depicted correctly in Hollywood movies.
Resources
NOAA
On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink and started a catastrophic oil leak from the well. Before it was capped three months later, approximately 134 million gallons of oil had spilled into the Gulf, the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
