The Legacy of Deepwater Horizon

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on BP’s offshore oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon killed 11 crewmen and set off the worst environmental disaster in a generation. For nearly three months, natural gas and crude oil released into the waters off the Gulf Coast, covering more than 40,000 square miles and washing up on the shorelines of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

The spill was devastating to the people, environment, and economy of the Gulf Region. Oil contaminated marine habitats from the ocean floor to coastal marshes, killing thousands of seabirds, marine mammals, and fish. The Gulf’s iconic tourism and seafood industries were depressed for years. People that lived, worked, and recreated along the coast, and those who dedicated themselves to clean-up efforts, experienced a range of complex and long-term health challenges. The ripple effects of Deepwater Horizon are still felt by people across the region today.

The crisis led to major advances in oil spill science, spurring thousands of publications which have helped us to better understand everything from how pollutants move through the ocean to how oil toxicity affects the health of plants, animals, and microbes. Today, the science that informs hazardous material spill response and recovery is more accurate and robust than ever.

Yet, the spill also showed that researchers were limited in their capacity to study the human, economic, and environmental impacts of the spill—especially the long-term impacts—in a coordinated, scientifically rigorous, and community-centered way. It is essential that we build on the progress made since Deepwater Horizon and strengthen a new generation of Gulf researchers to do research that ensures the people of the region have a full account of how major spills affect their communities.