Time for Action Six Years After Deepwater Horizon Julie Dermansky “One of the lessons we’ve learned from this spill is that we need better regulations, better safety standards, and better enforcement when it comes to offshore drilling.” President Barack Obama June 15, 2010 Authors Acknowledgments Ingrid Biedron, Ph.D. The authors are grateful for the reviews, comments and and Suzannah Evans direction provided by Dustin Cranor, Claire Douglass, Michael April 2016 LeVine, Lara Levison, Kathryn Matthews, Ph.D., Jacqueline U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Savitz, Lora Snyder, Oona Watkins and Emory Wellman. 1 OCEANA | Time for Action: Six Years After Deepwater Horizon Executive Summary he Deepwater Horizon oil spill 2016, that show the damage the 2010 oil • Harmful oil and/or oil dispersant Tdevastated the Gulf of Mexico’s spill caused in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists chemicals were found in about 80 marine life, communities and economy. are still working to understand the scale of percent of pelican eggs that were laid in Since the 2010 disaster, federal agencies devastation to wildlife, fisheries and human Minnesota, more than 1,000 miles from have done little to improve the safety of health. These catastrophic outcomes could the Gulf, where most of these birds offshore drilling using existing authorities happen in any region of the United States spend winters.3 and Congress has done virtually nothing where oil and gas activities are proceeding, • Oil exposure caused heart failure in to reduce the risk of another spill in our especially as those activities are moving juvenile bluefin and yellowfin tunas,4 waters or on our beaches. Although into deeper and more dangerous areas. reduced swimming ability in juvenile investigations of the disaster resulted in mahi-mahi fish5 and caused gill tissue detailed recommendations to strengthen Key findings include the disaster’s impact damage in killifish.6 the laws governing offshore drilling, no on the marine ecosystem: new laws have been passed. • Mortality rates for common bottlenose • The oil plume caused bleaching and tissue dolphins living in Barataria Bay, loss in deep-water coral reefs over an area To make better decisions about offshore Louisiana were 8 percent higher and three times larger than Manhattan.7 energy, we must continue to learn from their reproductive success was 63 • Endangered sea turtles that had the ongoing impacts of the Deepwater percent lower compared to other migrated to the Gulf from Mexico, Horizon oil spill six years after the disaster. dolphin populations.1 South America and West Africa died This report highlights scientific studies, • An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 birds in the spill, demonstrating the global focusing on those released in 2015 and died as a result of the spill.2 scale of impacts.8 Julie Dermansky Surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. May, 2010. oceana.org 2 Julie Dermansky Oiled marsh in Barataria Bay, Louisiana following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. September, 2010. The oil spill also had a dramatic effect • 10 million user-days of beach, fishing • The United States should transition on human health: and boating activity were lost.14 away from offshore oil drilling and • The 50,000 people involved in spill instead invest in cleaner, safer cleanup were exposed to chemicals technologies like offshore wind and that severely damage lung tissue.9 Recommendations: other renewable energy sources. • President Obama should not allow • Cleanup workers and their spouses • Scientists, decision makers, federal additional leasing, exploration or reported increased depression and and state governments, and the public development in frontier areas such as domestic disputes.10 should continue to monitor and learn the Atlantic, Arctic and ultra-deepwater. from the effects of the Deepwater • Even Gulf residents indirectly affected • President Obama should not allow Horizon spill so that we can restore by the spill suffered from increased offshore drilling in new areas or areas losses and prevent future disasters. anxiety and depression.11 where vulnerable ecosystems will be • It can take a decade or more for oil spill at risk. Six years later, the lesson from the Gulf of victims to recover from the physical and • The federal government should fully Mexico oil spill is clear: Offshore drilling psychological effects of an oil disaster.12 implement the well control rule and is not safe for the environment, the finalize Arctic-specific regulations. economy or human health. We therefore The economic losses from the spill should not expand oil and gas activities • President Obama should not allow were enormous: in U.S. waters. Instead, we should rapidly seismic airgun blasting, a technique used • The impact of the oil spill on fisheries develop clean energy options, including to locate oil and gas deposits, where could total $8.7 billion by 2020, offshore wind power. marine life can be harmed. including the loss of 22,000 jobs.13 3 OCEANA | Time for Action: Six Years After Deepwater Horizon Introduction n April 20, 2010, an explosion on The Gulf spill had enormously negative Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Othe Deepwater Horizon offshore impacts on the region, including on the Leasing Program. As the Deepwater drilling rig killed 11 crew members and offshore and coastal environments and the Horizon disaster showed, even the “best” caused the worst oil spill in American animals that live there. It also affected the technology can fail – putting ecosystems, history. The oil spill continued for 87 economy, impacting tourism and the fishing the economy and human health at risk. days as engineers tried and failed to stop industry. Drawing on the latest scientific Oceana strongly recommends that it.15 By the time the well was sealed, studies, this report summarizes what we oil and gas exploration and extraction more than 200 million gallons of oil have learned about the effects of the oil spill activities not be expanded within had flooded into the Gulf of Mexico.16 six years later and highlights the most recent U.S. waters. Instead, the U.S. should By comparison, the 1989 Exxon Valdez research published in 2015 and 2016. transition to renewable energy sources spilled almost 11 million gallons of oil like offshore wind power. As this report into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, Studying the effects of oil spills on marine highlights, the negative effects of the about one-twentieth the amount life is more important than ever, as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continue to of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.17 U.S. government finalizes the 2017-2022 play out, even six years later. Julie Dermansky Memorial on Grand Isle, Louisiana for crew members killed in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. April, 2015. oceana.org 4 Endangered Species Act.22 Forty additional and nearly 1,000 sea otter deaths.26 The Gulf of Mexico marine species in the Gulf area that are More than 25 years later, we are still unprotected by federal laws are listed as experiencing the effects of the Exxon he Gulf of Mexico is one of the most threatened on the International Union Valdez spill. Despite a major cleanup Tvibrant and important ecosystems for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.23 effort, oil can still be found underneath and economic engines in the U.S. Its The economic footprint of the Gulf of some Alaskan beaches.27 1,631 miles of coastline18 cross five states Mexico is enormous. More than 22 million and include estuaries, coral reefs, seagrass people live in the Gulf’s coastal counties The disaster that claimed the title for beds, mangrove swamps, barrier islands and parishes, many of them working in the world’s worst spill prior to the and the 5 million acres of coastal wetlands commercial seafood, shipping, tourism, Deepwater Horizon blowout, the Ixtoc that make up the Mississippi River Delta and oil and gas production.24 The Gulf’s 1 oil spill, took place in 1979 in the ecosystem. This area includes almost 10 ports, which are among the 15 largest southern part of the Gulf of Mexico, 40 percent of the wetlands found in the ports in the U.S., account for almost $1 when an oil rig owned by the Mexican lower 48 states.19 These habitats play trillion in trade annually.25 government suffered a similar failure. a vital role in the food chain, providing Oil flowed from the well for nearly a spawning areas and breeding grounds The Deepwater Horizon year, resulting in 140 million gallons for wildlife, including commercial and of oil spilled into the Gulf.28 Still, that recreational species that are important Disaster in Context disaster was ultimately dwarfed by to the tourism and fishing industries. the Deepwater Horizon spill. Since then, A spawning ground is “a place where he Deepwater Horizon blowout additional spills have been reminders animals go to lay eggs”20 and is therefore Tproduced the largest oil spill in U.S. of the continued threat of extracting important to species survival. history, but it is far from the only oil oil resources from marine ecosystems. disaster to strike the country. The famous Just last year, on May 19, 2015, 21,000 The region is home to more than 15,000 Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 released nearly gallons of crude oil spilled into the species of animals,21 including 15 11 million gallons of oil near the Alaskan Pacific Ocean at Refugio State Beach marine species protected under the coastline, resulting in 35,000 bird deaths near Santa Barbara, California.29 NOAA Vessel skimming oil in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. April, 2010. 5 OCEANA | Time for Action: Six Years After Deepwater Horizon The Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster il is harmful to many plants and Oanimals and has both immediate Impacts on Marine Life The number of whale and dolphin and long-term effects on ecosystems and deaths in the Gulf following the spill economies.