Luvshaggies's List: BP oil spill

• we modified the planned location of pipeline sites to reduce the impact to groundwater if a spill was to occur.
• We introduced satellite remote sensing into our shipping oil spill response exercise in San Francisco in the US in 2013

• The concept was to use the centrifuge onboard oil spill response vessels (OSRVs) to rapidly separate oil and water collected by conventional mechanical ‘oil skimming’ technology, thereby removing spilled oil from the environment, reclaiming the spilled crude oil as a sellable asset, and discharging nearly pristine water back into the Gulf.
• six OSRVs were retrofitted with integrated oil/water separation systems and deployed by BP in both deep and shallow water cleanup operations under the supervision of the US Coast Guard via the National Contingency Plan

• • The spill had a negative impact on people’s intentions to visit Louisiana: 26% of people who had previously intended to visit the state had postponed or cancelled their trips.
• a quarter of people thought that leisure activities (swamp tours, boating and hiking) were closed because of the spill when in fact this was not the case.
• The seafood industry was particularly impacted by perceptions:
• • By June 3^rd, 60% of hotels surveyed had experienced cancellations
   
  • In the same time frame, 42% of hotels began to experience difficulty booking future events.
• • The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had the potential to impact 7.3 million businesses throughout Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, affecting 34.4 million employees and $5.2 trillion in sales volume.
• both the resorts and the budget hotels in Northwest Florida have rebounded and are doing well, but the support industries are still struggling. Some of the mom and pop restaurants, gift shops, and the charter boat and watercraft rental businesses have really struggled, and many of them just didn’t make it.”

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• The Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks. An oil slick appears in the water. It is not known if the leak is from the rig or from the underwater well to which it was connected.
• The U.S. Coast Guard reports that the underwater well is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil a day.
• The Coast Guard increases its spill estimate to 210,000 gallons of oil a day.
• BP starts a procedure known as "top kill," which attempts to pump enough mud down into the well to eliminate the upward pressure from the oil and clear the way for a cement cap to be put into place. The attempt fails.
• BP agrees to create a $20 billion fund to help victims affected by the oil spill.
• July 10, 2010 - BP removes an old containment cap from the well so a new one can be installed. While the cap is removed, oil flows freely. The new cap is finished being installed on July 12.
• BP finishes the "static kill" procedure. Retired Adm. Thad Allen says this will "virtually assure us there's no chance of oil leaking into the environment.
• He said the other two main defendants in the more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in the spill's wake

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• The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig sank, and hydrocarbons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico before the well was closed and sealed

• more than 200 million gallons of crude oil was pumped into the Gulf of Mexico for a total of 87 days, making it the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.
• oil is still washing up on shores, which might cause long-term damages to people living in the area.
• The initial oil rig explosion killed 11 people and injured 17 others.

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• On the 20^th April 2010 an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Gulf of Mexico caused an unprecedented event, an event best described as a tragedy . The tragedy that unfolded involved an explosion, the death of 11 rig workers, the eventual sinking of the rig and an estimated release of 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
• Five months after oil began gushing into the ocean the leak was corked, but its impact has had a deleterious affect on the Gulf region’s ecological and economical milieu
• The economic impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill within the Gulf region has, and will continue to have, a negative effect on the Gulf Region’s key industries and businesses.

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• unseen signs of sickness, including lung damage, low levels of adrenal hormones and unhealthy weight loss.
• chemical and petroleum pollutants from the BP spill in the eggs of white pelicans in Minnesota, chemicals that could negatively affect embryo development.
• Researchers also found an "unusual" spike in dolphin strandings;
• large numbers of sea turtle strandings in the years since the spill
• red snapper in the affected area were found with lesions and rotting fins.
• As non-moving organisms, oysters couldn't avoid the spill, and population growth was significantly down in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
• "The crab catches are really down, and what they're getting have big lesions on them -- lesions and fungal or bacterial infections."
• The 2010 spill occurred during spawning season for yellowfin and bluefin tuna, meaning the fish embryos, larvae and newborn fish were also affected.

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