Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Essay

In an article posted by CNN, it is revealed that "BP was ruled responsible for the release of 3.1 million barrels" (Griffin et al). The process of removing the oil is in progress, but there is still a magnitude of oil to be cleaned up. This disaster did not only affect the environment, but it also affected the workers involved. It is also mentioned in the article that eleven workers died. The disaster affected the lives of many people other than the oil rig workers, however. There have been some concerns about the quality of seafood being produced from the area, along with the health effects it had on the community. The New England Journal of Medicine mentions in their article that " Louisiana reported 415 self-identified health problems believed to be related to the Gulf oil spill" (Goldstein et al). The oil spill has had a profound effect on the gulf coast community and will continue to for many years to come. Hopefully, this horrible event can be a lesson for the future, so that more precautions are taken to benefit nature and

“It’s down to seven seconds. You see the time…Whittenburg…. Oh it’s a long ways, Oh he’s there! They won it…on a dunk!” Billy Packer said this when covering the historical run by the NC State Wolfpack to win the Division 1 NCAA tournament in a dramatic fashion. A team with no chance of making the tournament, let alone winning the championship, does the impossible and wins the NCAA Division 1 championship. Despite NC State being a smaller school compared to the big basketball powerhouses like Virginia, UNC, Houston and many others, they had players work and will their way to the finish line. If players were paid, you wouldn’t see players like Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, or Ralph Sampson on different teams. It would be the college with the most money, could pay the best student-athletes, the most money and Cinderella stories for the most part would disappear. Dynasties of college sports would be made. Money would ruin college sports more than it already has. It has already stripped championships, ruined players images and futures, and tarnished reputations of colleges. The Fab 5, the near “3-Pete” for Oklahoma University, and the USC Trojans football team scandal, are just a few instances where college sports were affected wrongly by the idea of “play for pay.” Colleges and Universities should not pay students to participate in college sports because of all the benefits the athletes receive, the fact that the colleges wouldn’t be able to pay for other

Many have described the post-spill Gulf as a gigantic chemical experiment, with as yet unknown effect on its delicate ecosystem. By July 2010, one third of the Gulf’s fishing area—more than 80,000 square miles—had been closed, affecting the livelihood of thousands in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi.

The effect of oil spill is usually calculated in terms of damage on the environment, aftermath on marine species, and effect on the tourism and fishery industries. The impact on human health is less known relatively. The financial costs associated with oil spills are also a factor. Arguably, it is a less serious consequence of an Oil Spill, however the financial costs have the potential to bankrupt an organization. BP suffered major financial loss as a result of the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They have paid up to $1.5 billion in an effort to settle various claims and compensation. (BP, n.d)

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill was the largest spill in history in front of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. This oil spill released about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. This spill not only wreck havoc on the marine life but also the economic players that depended on ocean such as fisherman, tourism, and offshore drilling located along the gulf coast. Along will the spill the oil rig which was named Deepwater Horizon also went up in flames. This proved that the issue went far beyond just an oil rig that blew a line. Since this oil spill had drastic impacts all along the coast, BP which was the most liable for this incident faced criminal charges based on what happened. BP which knew the risks of deep ocean drilling failed to take the necessary safety procedures to reduce the risks of such incident occurring, thus was the reasoning behind placing most of the fault on them and not the other companies. The lack of regulatory oversight led to the issues and cost-cutting procedures opened the rig up to possible malfunctions like the one that occurred. During the spill into the gulf, BP sealed the well with cement which seemed to stop a majority of the oil from escaping the well. BP also recognized that the well was “dead” which was proven wrong when scientists still could conclude was leaking minor amounts of oil into the ocean. This spill not only proved to be harmful to the environment but also

The oil also has a physical and physiological effect including irritation, inflammation, or necrosis of the skin, chemical burns, ingestion of oil/dispersants can lead to inflammation, ulcers, bleeding, as well as possible damage to liver, kidneys, and brain tissue. It can also cause disfunction of the immune and reproductive system. The wildlife can become physiologically stressed, their physical condition will ultimately decline, and some may even die. The oil spill has additionally had an extensive effect on the ecosystem as a whole. An ecosystem can be defined as a biological environment consisting of all the organism living in a particular area, as well as the non-living physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact. Experts predict that the ecosystem could require years or even decades to fully recover since there is a chance of biomagnification. Biomagnification occurs once a PBT(Persistent Bioaccumalative substances) have piled up in one part of the ecosystem the substance becomes concentrated from one link in the food web to the next. It can affect entire populations and threaten biodiversity in “insidious, sub-lethal” ways. In addition to the possibility of biomagnification the oil causes

The e Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April 2010 killed 11 people and caused almost 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill covered 68,000 square miles of land and sea and triggered a response effort involving the use of nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals (Pallardy). Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) resulted in widespread environmental and economic damage, the exact nature of which is only beginning to be understood (Shultz 59). This paper will address the causes of this unmitigated ecological disaster and discuss steps that need to be taken to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again.

The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).

After the spill in 2011 hundreds of stillborn baby dolphins were born, their mothers were in their first trimester during the oil spill. The oil spill caused an unbalance in the food chain, many species lost eggs and larvae due to the spill, this has caused a decrease in fish and wildlife population which causes a chain reaction of commercial fishing to be affected because they lose out and it overall affects the local economies (nwf). With the devastation of this oil spill, how did BP, OSHA, and the Government handle this mess? Not very well and may have actually hurt the environment more by how the cleanup and cover-ups were

The consequences are horrific, more than a third of federal waters in the gulf were closed to fishing at the peak of the spill, because of the contamination, fish could be toxic and dead. An article from the BP website noted that on the evening of April 20, 2010, the gas release and subsequent explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon rig working on the Macondo exploration well in Gulf of Mexico. The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig sank and the hydrocarbons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was close and

The purpose for my letter is to express my concerns of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred April 20, 2010. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the most recent oil spill and in all probability the biggest catastrophic spill in the petroleum industry. The BP oil spill did not just affect the company, it affected so much more; it had such a huge impact on the birds, whales, and the costal habitats. Six years ago the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico blew out, causing an explosion. Oil leaked from the broken well from mid-April to mid-July, nearly three months, causing more than 200 million gallons of crude oil to swim out onto the gulf shoreline. In addition to the oil, almost 2 million gallons of virulent dispersant was used. The chemical dispersant did not lessen the amount of oil, but broke it into smaller particles, leaving the Gulf of Mexico as a dead zone.

On April 20, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history. As a result, a huge loss of money and life was caused and affected serious environmental damage to wild animals and water pollution. BP was accused of their irresponsibility that it took 87 days before the well was closed and sealed. BP’s shares

Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).

In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.

Oil contamination is devastating for an environment. The free release of oil into the water leads to a wide range of negative consequences, such as “the spread by wind and wave” (Bai & Bai, 2014, p. 363). The oil spillage from the Deepwater Horizon platform floating on the surface was spread by wind and sun, moving over the water’s surface. As a result, the oil spread affected the environment, including the wildlife.