Hindsight 2020: Lessons We Cannot Ignore from the BP Disaster

On April 20, 2010, the BP exploratory rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 workers and setting off the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Oil gushed from the seafloor for 87 days, ultimately spewing hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Chaos and uncertainty ensued. Residents across the Gulf watched helplessly as oil crept toward their shores, while the government, BP and its contractors scrambled unsuccessfully to contain the spill for months. 

It was one of the worst environmental disasters this country has ever seen. Oil washed up on 1,300 miles of shoreline, from Texas to Florida, oiling beaches and wetlands — and killing tens of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins and fish. Despite the vast resources spent on oil removal efforts, the government estimated that as much as 60 million gallons of oil remained in the environment.

The economic impacts began almost immediately. Tourism to the Gulf Coast declined, and businesses dependent on coastal tourism lost revenue and were forced to lay off workers. The prospect of oiled beaches depressed real estate values. Fisheries closed and demand for Gulf seafood plummeted. A government study estimated the loss in the seafood industry at nearly $1 billion, and the recreation industry, as a whole, lost more than a half-billion dollars. 

Ten years later, it is important to look back at how this catastrophe happened; how it impacted the Gulf’s ecology and economy; how those effects are still being felt today; and if the disaster changed the industry’s approach to offshore oil drilling. To answer these questions, Oceana reviewed government documents, media coverage, scientific studies, reports from nonprofit organizations and interviewed Gulf Coast residents, scientists, business owners and policy experts.

What we found was disturbing. The poor safety culture and inadequate government oversight that set the stage for catastrophe persists. If anything, another disaster is more likely, because the industry is drilling deeper and farther offshore, which increases the likelihood of a spill and makes responding to a spill more difficult. The reckless push to massively expand the footprint of offshore drilling to new areas comes at the same time the Trump administration is rolling back the already too few safety measures that were put in place after the spill. 

Years later, large swaths of the ocean floor around the wellhead resemble a toxic waste dump, devoid of the kinds of marine life that typically lives there. Surveys of animals throughout the water column have found declines of certain fish, shrimp and squid ranging from 50% to 85%. Important marshes that protect the coast from storm surges and erosion were lost, and many of them may never recover.

Alarmingly, at least one new study revealed that hundreds of thousands of gallons of dispersants released underwater were apparently less effective than previously thought. The high pressure at the depth of the well caused the oil and gas mixture that was released in the blowout to disperse on its own, and researchers concluded that the already dispersed oil could not be dispersed any further. So, this study suggests that those chemicals may have been dumped into the Gulf for no benefit at all.

Oil is toxic on its own and dispersants are also hazardous. More than 100,000 people were involved in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil removal and response, and many were exposed to crude oil or chemical dispersants. Workers reported a range of health problems, including tightness of the chest and burning in the nose, eyes and lungs that in some cases continued for years after exposure. Workers showed persistent or worsening health problems even seven years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, including blood disorders and heart problems.

Some workers and coastal residents who were exposed to waste materials may not have been aware of the dangers oil production poses. Many waste materials from both oil exploration and production are exempt from the federal safeguards meant to protect people and the environment from exposure. This exemption is the apparent result of the oil and gas industry’s lobbying. For example, benzene is considered a human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But, if benzene waste is generated in the production or exploration of oil, it is treated as nonhazardous, even though it is known to cause cancer. 

Overall, BP’s response to the disaster was slow, inadequate and incomplete. Before it could begin drilling, BP submitted a spill-response plan. A review of this plan should have revealed that in no way was BP prepared to manage a blowout. BP’s response plan contained embarrassing mistakes, including a reference to seals and walruses — animals not found in the Gulf of Mexico — indicating that at least portions of the plan had been copied and pasted from documents related to drilling in the Arctic. The only effort named in the pre-drilling plan to stop an oil spill at its source was drilling a relief well — a process that takes months. 

The dangers of offshore oil drilling are not limited to huge disasters like the BP Deepwater Horizon. The infrastructure footprint of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf is massive. As of 2016, there were 2,165 offshore platforms and more than 26,000 miles of pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico — more than enough to circle the Earth. Each of these is a potential spill waiting to happen, and indeed, hundreds of oil spills occur in U.S. waters every year. Between 2007 and 2018, more than 7,000 oil spills occurred in federal waters, an average of nearly two every day. 

All these dangers — the environmental impacts, economic impacts and health impacts — now threaten many more coastal communities. President Trump proposed to open nearly all U.S. waters to offshore drilling. 

This would be a direct threat to coastal economies that depend on clean beaches and healthy oceans. Fishing, tourism and recreation support more than 2.6 million jobs and generate nearly $180 billion in GDP in U.S. East and West Coast states.