On April 20, 2010 BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, offshore of Louisiana, exploded. Out of the 126 people on board, seventeen people were injured and eleven died in the explosion. There were three reported leaking points, releasing tens-of-thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf waters each day that they went unplugged.
One month later, the oil damage had resulted in almost 19 percent (46,000 square miles) of the Gulf’s federal waters being closed to fishing. The thick, heavy oil blanketed some of the state’s wetlands and shores. On July 15, a cap was successfully placed on the well to contain the crude oil that had been previously gushing into the Gulf. The incoming BP CEO, Bob Dudley, told CNN, “I think – no guarantees – but I believe there will be no more oil flowing into the Gulf as of the 15th of July.” Dudley’s not alone in his hopes that there will be an end to the gushing oil, resulting in the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.
Even though there is no more oil being released into the gulf, there is still the issue of cleaning up. Crude oil (directly from a well) doesn’t evaporate as easily as lighter oil (such as gasoline). BP decided to use a chemical dispersant, which mixes the oil with the water, in their clean up. The dispersant may reduce the potential that the oil slick will reach shore, but the chemical has been said to be more toxic than the oil slick itself. One thing that the 1.84 million gallons of dispersant that BP applied to the Gulf does do is make the puddles of oil on top of the water disappear. BP might be hoping for an “out of sight, out of mind” result, but the effects of the oil will be lasting whether the oil can be seen or not.
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