Within this past month, on April 20th of 2017, people are still writing about the 2010 oil spill that ravaged the news and environment. A Virginia Tech article outlines, "The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill did $17.2 billion in damage to the natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, a team of scientists recently found after a six-year study of the impact of the largest oil spill in U.S. history."
As "the first comprehensive appraisal" of the 134-million-gallon spill's financial tolls, the new findings have concluded the far-reaching effects have totaled this final valuation. In class we have talked about short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects, and the BP crisis outlines all of the above.As we talked about in discussion, the explosion on the BP rig was due to defective cement, yet this error cost 11 people their lives, and 4.9 million barrels of oil to seep into the gulf and ultimately sending crippling effects radiating into the surrounding areas. Industries like fishing, tourism, and hunting were negatively impacted, however more importantly was the toll the spill took on the environment.
The Deepwater Horizon spill displayed extremely low levels of effective response (using standards outlined in class) with the reaction time taking far too long for government officials to contain the incident (4 months to seal the leak of oil being discharged).
With the costs just officially being tallied over 6 years after-the-fact, it is clear we must have improved measures of coordination and contingency plans set in place for the future. Our task is now to take our mistakes and learn from them, as this unparalleled event simply cannot afford to be repeated.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170420141825.htm
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