Five years ago today the BP Deepwater
Horizon (DWH) oil well in the Gulf of Mexico burst into flames following a blow
out. Eleven workers died in the accident and 11 others were injured. Oil and
gas gushed out for months from the broken pipe at the floor of the sea. The
actual quantity of the spill was difficult to ascertain initially, and
estimates ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 barrels per day. After the fact, it was
determined that the maximum rate of spill was about 62,000 barrels a day and
over the three-month period of the spill, 4.9 million barrels of oil had poured
out. Even though this figure is questioned as it is important to the litigation
and fines that BP has to pay, the range of discrepancy has narrowed—somewhere between
3.2 and 4.2 billion barrels. Researchers are still trying to figure where
most of the oil went, because only about a quarter of amount has been accounted
for.
Over 600 miles of the coastline were
affected. Fishery and tourism are major industries of the region, and suffered
enormous losses. The damage to the environment, to the local flora and fauna,
and the destruction of their habitat was catastrophic in scope. There was a
marked decline in the population of shrimp, oysters, and various fish, and the
concern was that with the loss of much of their habitat, populations of
pelicans, turtles, and dolphins would also collapse. People feared that seafood
from the region would be contaminated with toxins threatening the industry. In
the immediate aftermath of the tragedy the headlines screamed of the
irrevocable damage to the fragile ecology of the area—that the place would forever turn into a wasteland.
Now, forever is a very long time. Not to minimize the catastrophe that
the DWH blowout was, it seemed to me though that the alarmist response was
uncalled for, and it distracted attention from the real restorative work that
needed to be done. Deepwater Horizon was only one of several major events in
which large amounts of oil were discharged into seas and oceans and these
accidents could provide some valuable lessons.
A year following the DWH blowout, I
wrote a post
about the accident. I looked at what happened after four specific incidents of
major oil spills: Amoco Cadiz, Ixtoc 1,
Exxon Valdez, and the sabotage by Iraqi army following the first Gulf War in
1991. I also noted that about 10 million
gallons of oil naturally seeps in the Gulf of Mexico every year. The main
conclusion I drew was that as tragic as these events have been for the people
and animals directly affected, they also provide a strong testament to the
resilience of the environment as recovery of the environment, and that we would
expect the Gulf of Mexico to also recover in three to five years.
I have been reviewing many of the
articles about the aftermath of the disaster. Some of the noteworthy findings
are:
·
The
Food and Drug Administration tested
seafood from the Gulf of Mexico for contaminants but has found
few problems with toxicity.
·
Studies on the
fate of the oil show that the oil-eating
microbes, which are endemic to the region because of the natural oil
seepage, feasted on the oil spill and biodegraded the oil. The sharp increase
in the population of these microbes could have reduced the dissolved oxygen and
adversely affect other species, but that scenario did not play out.
·
Fish
and shrimp populations have rebounded to pre-disaster levels, and the seafood
industry has largely recovered. However, oyster harvests have not yet
recovered, possibly because of their limited mobility to move to oil-free
areas.
·
Tourists
have returned to the region bringing with them the anticipated economic recovery.
To be sure there are still many
unanswered questions particularly about the long-term effects. The general
point I want to emphasize is that as with previous cases of oil spills, nature
has once again bounced back. It is not an excuse to be lackadaisical about oil
spills. Safety has to be number one on the minds when drilling for oil in the
seas, as it should be in many other industrial operations. Safe operating procedures
and disaster preparedness have to be constantly improved as new information
becomes available. At the same time we should recognize that oil is not an
acute toxin and oil spills do not spell the demise of the region. Nature is
remarkably resilient, and that’s worth celebrating.
