[191] PAHs can harm marine species directly and microbes used to consume the oil can reduce marine oxygen levels. [318] The report stated that "whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money). BP pled guilty in 2012 to 14 felony counts and was fined a record $4 billionand half directly benefits the Gulf. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. Based on 16S rRNA gene community analysis, the most prominent group of hydrocarbon degraders detected at contaminated sites were from the genus Pseudomonas [9]. The main nutrients added to stimulate the growth of oil degrading microbes during the BP oil spills are nitrate and sulfate fertilizers [6]. [339] BP also agreed to spend $105million over five years to set up a Gulf Coast health outreach program and pay for medical examinations. Gerald Baron for Crisisblogger, 8 June 2012. [173][174][175] Restrictions were to prevent civilian air traffic from interfering with aircraft assisting the response effort. (1 May 2010). Under this settlement, BP will pay the Trustees up to $8.8 billion for restoration to address natural resource injuries. The settlement ended all civil and criminal penalty claims against the owners and operators of the rig BP, Anadarko, TransOcean and Halliburton under the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act. 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. [347] The settlement includes payments of $2.394billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $1.15billion to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, $350million to the National Academy of Sciences for oil spill prevention and response research, $100million to the North America Wetland Conservation Fund, $6million to General Treasury and $525million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Is there a way to inhibit full degradation of petroleum while producing non toxic organic compounds? Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. [227], A 2014 bluefin tuna study in Science found that oil already broken down by wave action and chemical dispersants was more toxic than fresh oil. [357][358] According to The Wall Street Journal the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states had prepared an offer to BP for a $16billion settlement. "There was not a culture of safety on that rig," the co-chair said. [328], The GCCF and its administrator Feinberg had been criticized about the amount and speed of payments as well as a lack of transparency. Official websites use .gov [59], On 25 July 2013, Halliburton pleaded guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the oil spill and said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation. ", "OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH. [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. Dead bodies of marine birds, fish, and various other affected animals can be seen floating all over the area. "[318] BP released a statement in response to this, saying, that "even prior to the conclusion of the commission's investigation, BP instituted significant changes designed to further strengthen safety and risk management. [185], The State of Louisiana was funded by BP to do regular testing of fish, shellfish, water, and sand. [362] To date BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54billion.[363]. BP said 826,800bbl (131,450m3) had been recovered or flared. Chemical data implied that the substance might be residual oil leaking from the wreckage. [233] Chemicals from the oil and dispersant are believed to be the cause; it is believed that the addition of dispersants made the oil more toxic. Oil spill cleanup. Please click here to see any active alerts. Regular cleanup patrols were no longer considered justified but cleanup was being conducted on an as-needed basis, in response to public reports. [355], The trial's first phase was to determine the liability of BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and other companies, and if they acted with gross negligence and willful misconduct. Due to the magnitude of this event and environmental and political damage it caused, a significant scientific effort has been made to study its effect on ocean and coastal ecosystems. "[331], In July 2013, BP made a motion in court to freeze payments on tens of thousands of claims, arguing inter alia that a staff attorney from the Deepwater Horizon Court-Supervised Settlement Program, the program responsible for evaluating compensation claims, had improperly profited from claims filed by a New Orleans law firm. Improving Your Non-Technical Skills as a Scientist. [293] In June 2018, the executive order establishing the National Ocean Council was revoked by then-U.S. president Donald Trump in an effort to roll back bureaucracy and benefit "ocean industries [that] employ millions of Americans". The Deepwater Horizon accident has brought oil contamination of deep-sea environments to worldwide attention. [66] In April 2012, oil was still found along as much as 200mi (320km) of Louisiana coastline and tar balls continued to wash up on the barrier islands. [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. In April 2010, the accident began after a spill from a seafloor oil gusher, leading to the explosion of BP's oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, in its Macondo . [165] However, biogeochemist Chris Reddy said natural microorganisms are a big reason why the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was not far worse. [369], None of the charges against individuals resulted in any prison time, and no charges were levied against upper level executives. restoration plan to address impacts from the spill to the Gulf of Mexico, Trustees final comprehensive restoration plan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission Partner to Restore Recreational Fish, Rescued from Deepwater Horizon, a Resilient Native Returns to Queen Bess Island, $226 Million in Projects Approved in Gulf Open Ocean Restoration Plan, Two Partners Recommended for Funding to Restore Habitat From Oil and Hazardous Waste Spills, Comments Welcomed on Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Draft Restoration Plan, Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Restoration Plan 1 Finalized, Mississippi Acquires Land in Grand Bay with Deepwater Horizon Settlement Funds, NOAA Announces Latest Partnership to Restore Habitats Damaged by Oil and Hazardous Waste, Deepwater Horizon Trustees to Host Two Public Events, July 18 and 19 in Mississippi, A Decade Later: Advances in Oil Spill Science Since Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon oil spill contributed to high number of Gulf dolphin deaths, https://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/adminrecord. [13] Due to the months-long spill, along with adverse effects from the response and cleanup activities, extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and fishing and tourism industries was reported. [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. In addition, Louisiana reported that lost visitor spending through the end of 2010 totaled $32million, and losses through 2013 were expected to total $153million in this state alone. . [319][321] One was that it had not used a diagnostic tool to test the strength of the cement. [272], On 28 April 2010, the National Energy Board of Canada, which regulates offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic and along the British Columbia Coast, issued a letter to oil companies asking them to explain their argument against safety rules which require same-season relief wells. [259] Due to the loss of the market value, BP had dropped from the second to the fourth largest of the four major oil companies by 2013. Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Review of 10 later hospitalizations found that heat exposure and dehydration were consistent findings but could not establish chemical exposure. [312], On 8 September 2010, BP released a 193-page report on its web site. The North American Wetlands Conservation Fund received $100 million from the court fines to support projects on wetlands restoration and conservation in the United States, Canada and Mexico. [192] The oil contained approximately 40% methane by weight, compared to about 5% found in typical oil deposits. A large scale of bioremediation was deployed during the BP oil spill crisis due to its effectiveness and lower cost [8]. Bacteria that had adapted to consuming naturally occurring gas and oil seeping from the seabed were thought to have consumed a portion of it. [308] The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling was established on 22 May to "consider the root causes of the disaster and offer options on safety and environmental precautions. [257][258] BP's expenditures on the spill included the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs, including fines and penalties. It fouled the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and launched a six-year long environmental and legal battle. This webpage is limited to EPAs enforcement-related activities only, and does not cover all legal or other actions against BP Exploration & Production and other parties for the spill, such as private party/class action settlements for medical claims and economic damages, or other actions against those responsible for the spill. Bioremediation is a method used to treat water, soil, and subsurface material pollutants through changing environmental conditions to catalyze the growth of microorganisms and reduce the target pollutants 4. This adds to the already soaring greenhouse gas concentration. In May 2010, the bacterial count for the deepwater plume was 55,000 cells/ml and only 27,000 cells/ml outside of the plume. [148] In a major study on the plume, experts were most concerned about the slow pace at which the oil was breaking down in the cold, 40F (4C) water at depths of 3,000ft (900m). In their report, they suggest the possibility that respiratory symptoms might have been caused by high levels of ozone or reactive aldehydes in the air, possibly produced from photochemical reactions in the oil. [223] In 2013, former NASA physicist Bonny Schumaker noted a "dearth of marine life" in a radius 30 to 50mi (48 to 80km) around the well, after flying over the area numerous times since May 2010. [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. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink and started a catastrophic oil leak from the well. Bioaugmentation is the inoculation of a relatively small amount of oil-degrading microbes into an affected area. This webpage provides information and materials on EPAs enforcement response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, settlements with several of the defendants, including the record-setting settlement with BP Exploration & Production for an unprecedented $5.5 billion Clean Water Act penalty and up to $8.8 billion in natural resource damages. For the Deep Horizon oil spill, cleanup workers used 1,400,000USgal (5,300,000l; 1,200,000impgal) of various chemical dispersants to further breakdown the oil. It uses microorganisms or biological agents to treat oil spills, and soils contaminated 4. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. [3] For marshes, techniques such as vacuum and pumping, low-pressure flush, vegetation cutting, and bioremediation were used. The plaintiffs included the U.S. Justice Department, Gulf states and private individuals. Directive of Rarely", "In Standoff With Environmental Officials, BP Stays With an Oil Spill Dispersant", "Statement by EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson from Press Conference on Dispersant Use in the Gulf of Mexico with U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Landry", "Dispersants flow into Gulf in 'science experiment', "BP oil spill: Obama administration's scientists admit alarm over chemicals", "Gulf oil spill: Effects of dispersants remain a mystery", "22-mile-long oily plume mapped near BP site Disaster in the Gulf", "Chemical Dispersant Made BP Oilspill 52 Times More Toxic", "Dispersant makes oil from spills 52 times more toxic", "Burning off oil from BP spill in Gulf posed little health risk, feds say in new report (video)", "Giant oil skimmer 'A Whale' deemed a bust for Gulf of Mexico spill", BP oil spill: Kevin Costner's oil-water separation machines help with clean-up, "Advances in Oil Spill Cleanup Lag Since Valdez", "BP 'Excited' Over Kevin Costner's Oil Cleanup Machine, Purchases 32", "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response: Current Operations as of June 28", "An Audacious Decision in Crisis Gets Cautious Praise", "Dynamic autoinoculation and the microbial ecology of a deep water hydrocarbon irruption", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, "Bacteria in the gulf mostly digested gas, not oil, study finds", "How Microbes Helped Clean BP's Oil Spill", Oil-eating microbes may not be all they're cracked up to be | The Upshot Yahoo! 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