The BP Oil Spill: What Really Went Down


At 9:45pm on April 20^th, 2010, the vast and towering Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and marking the beginning of one of the biggest oil spills in the history of the US. The cause of the explosion? To put it simply, the cause was bad planning, ignorance, and a utter disregard for safety standards. After the oil rig 

Photo (c) Leanne Sarco.
Oil washed ashore on Grand Isle's last natural beach.



burned for over 24 hours and then sank into the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama Administration, BP and Transocean, the owner of the rig, all considered it to be an unpreventable disaster. But the truth is that had BP taken the steps necessary to make sure that there was a working blowout preventer and their safety procedures secure, there may not have ever been a Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

As the April days after the oil spill turned into May, the estimations of how much oil would actually be spewed from the 5,000 foot pipe on the bottom of the ocean grew larger and larger. The second week of the oil spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that their scientists believed over 5,000 barrels would be spilled into the Gulf waters per day until the well was capped. This remained the government's estimate until May 1^st, 2010. Dr. Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer, said that he estimated the flow rate to be up to 26,500 barrels per day. But soon it became clear that the actual amount of oil spilling from the bottom of the ocean was far, far more.

Soon after this estimate was made, a layer of oil could be seen clearly on the surface of the Gulf, spreading out from the site of the explosion as though an invisible hand was pouring a tar onto the ocean. BP and the Obama Administration seemed remarkably lax as the oil crept further and further towards shore, making only feeble attempts to hire fishermen as well as Coast Guard employees to set up booms and oil catching nets along the waters close to shore. But the number of people working on setting up these booms are remarkably small and the bags of oil dragged ashore and put into toxic waste dumps is even smaller. As the oil grew into the hundreds of thousands of gallons, it is obvious that there is more than just the ocean at stake.



As the balmy summer days stretched by, thick oil began to wash up on the Louisiana and Alabama shorelines, despite the unsuccessful booms that were laid out “strategically” across the waters. BP was quick to give up any semblance of taking the blame as it was now clear that the ocean was peril, instead pointing their fingers at Transocean and Hamilton, the owner of the rig and the cementing company who had made the cement casings for the oil rig. The result was a lot of public confusion and even more dreadful news for the Gulf coast wildlife.



Pelicans, hermit crabs, fish, seagulls, sea turtles: they're all by now in mortal danger, and they seemed to realize it. In Grand Isle, Louisiana, the visible oil started small but soon ballooned along the shoreline, with vast patches of foul smelling oil coating the sand. Pelicans landed in the water, skimming for fish, but are soon bogged down by the oil that swamps their wings. Fish swam under the thick oil layer but are surrounded by drops of floating oil, and soon perish from lack of oxygen. Hermit crabs washed up on shore, so completely covered in oil that their shells are caked with it. Why isn't anyone doing anything about this? Is no one taking action? Huge machines and tons of BP workers appeared on shore, with flashing lights and a big complex that was lit up night and day, but still not much seemed to be getting done.



On July 18^th, 2010, the oil spill was permanently capped, and a huge sigh of relief seemed to go up throughout the nation. But though the oil stopped flowing, the final estimate made on August 5^th, 2010, was that over 4,435,290 barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf. That's right, over 4 million barrels of oil. Even now, December 16^th, 7 months and 26 days after the oil spill, it's still not even nearly gone. There is still so much oil out there, that scientists predict it will take decades before it is totally gone and for the hundreds of wild animals killed from the oil to recover. The US is finally suing BP for the first time today for their actions, but they are not suing Hamilton, Transocean or Carmen, companies who also share some blame for the oil spill. It will take more than a just few billion dollars to totally fix this mess.