BP OIL SPILL 2
Running head: BP OIL SPILL 1
Analysis of the BP Oil Spill on April 10, 2010
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Analysis of the BP Oil Spill on April 10, 2010
Experts had indicated that the explosion on April 10, 2010, occurred when methane gas moved all the way to the drill column and was ignited and exploded causing a fire that could not be extinguished (Petroleum, 2010). The British Petroleum has been drilling the well in the Gulf Coast of Mississippi Delta. The explosion killed 11 people and left 17 crewmen injured and a lot of oil lost in the fire (Christou & Konstantinidou, 2012). The adverse effects of the explosion are economic, social, and environmental and a threat to public health.
The drilling process of the oil well began at the time of Bush administration, and the Mineral Management Service was the responsible agency for regulating offshore drills. The vice president of the agency failed to uphold drilling regulations that could have prevented the accident. The agency was affected by political intervention and corruption rendering it inactive to support drilling regulations. A report shows that the agencies regulators were taking bribes and sexual favors from those violating the drilling regulations (Bates, 2010). The agency is also accused of giving BP permission to drill before NOAA licensed the company. The Obama administration failed to rectify the mistakes made by Bush Administration and thus failed to prevent the disaster.
BP is the world third largest private company of drilling oil and is held responsible for the disaster (Krauss & Robertson, 2010). The company has a history of reckless spills and has for 518 times violated safety regulations. The company’s negligence has made it hazardous to the environment and people. The company’s record show that in the past decades its oil, chemical and the waste spill is four times that of its competitors. According to Obama, the company’s systems failed, and thus it should be held responsible for the disaster that occurred.
The disaster affected thousands of lives of Americans like fishers, coastal residents and seas creatures. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the explosion killed 2,919 birds, 489 sea turtle, and 64 mammals and more animals continue to be affected until all the oil is cleaned up (Tangley, 2010). The disaster has also made many people end up staying with their relatives, unable to pay rents in their apartment. The spill has made those that were relying on the shore to feed their families live wondering who shall clean the mess caused by the spill and make Gulf seafood clean again. But the Food and Drug Administration has conducted tests on the Gulf seashore foods, and the finds have confirmed that only a small percentage contain traces of any chemical.
Another business that has suffered significant loss is the tourism industry which is a great driver of gulf economy. The spill’s effects on tourism have caused of billions of money due to the decrease in tourism in the region. The Obamas government made a lot of efforts to restore the Gulf tourism industry to its glory. In his speech after the incident, Obama promised to make it his responsibility to ensure the residents of the Gulf go back to their normal livelihood. He then did a lot of projects and visits that helped boost the tourism sector of the Gulf economy.
The spill also affects the culture of the residents of the Gulf. The south was associated with good eating, traveling, and excellent hospitality but after the discharge, their food was no longer as prevalent as before. The excellent hospitality of the south was replaced with worries of businesses and desire to relocate; their beautiful bayous were replaced with salt marshes. The coastal residents of Gulf always wonder what will be the alternative to the challenges created by the spill (Nie et al., 2010).
The environment has also been adversely affected by the spill. According to scientists, a significant percentage of the oil is still underwater and continues to change corals and sponges. This will affect the reproduction of mammals in the water damaging the life of sea wildlife. It will also affect sea plants by blocking their stomata and preventing photosynthesis to take place. This will cause a reduction in the plant population and consequently death to the sea animals that feed on plants.
The researcher has come up with different theories which have been used to clean-up the remains on the spill. The first attempt was to send robots to activate the blowout preventers, but the theory did not succeed (Grover, 2017). The BP suggested two theories the first was to drill so that the leaks will be blocked with a denser fluid and the second was to place domes over the wells. However, biologist porter created fungi and bacteria that feed on all the waste elements of the spill (Nijhuis, 2010). Other more methods have been applied to try and clean all the oil toxins, and there are different estimates of how long it will take to clean up all the toxins (Ramseur & Hagerty, 2013) Various measures have been made to prevent a repeat of such an incident in the future. President Obama administration invested in offshore drilling as well as having an alternative source of energy like green energy from solar (Cherry & Sneirson, 2010). Suggestions have stated that BP should come up with the way to prevent the occurrence of such a disaster (Manca & Brambilla, 2012).
BP should have a better risk assessment, strict monitoring and better methods of control. But there are many questions about the BP oil spill that remains answered. The answer to such a question is needed to restore the economic, social, and environmental factors back to normal standards. Who is to be held responsible, what measures have been taken to prevent a repeat of such a disaster, and what actions have been taken to those responsible are some of the questions without answers. The answer to such a question is needed to restore the economic, social, and environmental factors back to usual standards.
In conclusion, the Bp oil spill remains to be one of the most devastating incidents that have occurred in U.S history. Its wide destruction on the environment, social and economy are felt to date. Lives were lost, property destroyed, and many crewmen were left with the casualty. The government has made a lot of intervention to clean-up the mess caused by accident and different organs are working together to ensure that chemical waste will be cleaned and livelihood returned to normal. Some measure taken by the government will ensure that such a terrifying thing will not occur again in America.
References
Bates, D. (2010). BP accepts blame for Gulf of Mexico spill after leaked memo reveals engineer misread pressure reading. The Daily Mail.
Cherry, M. A., & Sneirson, J. F. (2010). Beyond Profit: Rethinking corporate social responsibility and greenwashing after the BP oil disaster. Tul. l. rev., 85, 983.
Christou, M., & Konstantinidou, M. (2012). Safety of offshore oil and gas operations: Lessons from past accident analysis. Luxemburg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Grover, L. K. (2017). Quantum mechanics helps in searching for a needle in a haystack. Physical review letters, 79(2), 325.
Krauss, C., & Robertson, C. (2010). Gulf Spill Is the Largest of Its Kind, Scientists Say. The New York Times, August, 2.
Manca, D., & Brambilla, S. (2012). Dynamic simulation of the BP Texas City refinery accident. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 25(6), 950-957.
Nie, Z., Nijhuis, C. A., Gong, J., Chen, X., Kumachev, A., Martinez, A. W., & Whitesides, G. M. (2010). Electrochemical sensing in paper-based microfluidic devices. Lab on a Chip, 10(4), 477-483.
Petroleum, B. (2010). BP confirms that Transocean Ltd issued the following statement today.
Ramseur, J. L., & Hagerty, C. L. (2013). Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Recent activities and ongoing developments. Congressional Research Service. January 31, 2013.
Tangley, L. (2010). Bird habitats threatened by the oil spill. National Wildlife.