The BP oil spill began on April 20, 2010.

An oil rig 50 miles off of the Louisiana coast exploded and began to leak oil. This $600 million oil rig was owned by BP and was being leased to Deep Water Horizon to work on the Macondo Exploration Well. It is estimated that, at the time, the rig was producing 336,000 gallon of oil daily. Over 200 million gallons of crude oil across 87 days was spilled into the gulf. This passed up the Exxon-Valdez spill to become the biggest oil spill in American History. This spill affected 16,000 total miles (including 125 of Louisianas 400 mile coast) of the Gulf Coast, contaminating five states. A series of events occurred to allow this to happen. Normally, there are very many safety mechanisms in place to prevent oil spills, but all of them failed. This was caused by a well-integrity failure and loss of hydrostatic control of the well. This was only made worse by BPs inability to stop the well. There were 126 people on board the rig when it exploded. Of these, there were 17 injuries and 11 fatalities. The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig finally sank on April 22. But the ordeal was far from over. On April 24, it was revealed that 42,000 gallons of oil were spilling into the gulf daily. This number only escalated and, by April 28, was 210,000 gallons per day. There was also a five-mile-long oil slick along the coast. Pretty much all BPs efforts to stop the flow of the well failed. Five days after the spill, BP sent in remote-controlled robots to try to activate the blowout preventer. On May 2, they worked on a relief well that was going to pump mud into the active well to stop the flow. On the 7th, they tried to use a containment dome. On May 16, BP inserted a narrow tube into the pipe, which worked for a short amount of time. This tube collected about 84,000 gallons of oil per day. A month after the spill, BP tried to stop it using the Top Kill method, which was basically pumping mud into the well, then the Junk Shot method, which was the same thing, but substituting trash for mud. In June, they sent more robots to try to sever the riser pipe in order to place a containment cap over the spill. On July 17, BP actually caps the well, but it isnt a permanent fix. They decide to employ a plan called Static Kill, which meant that they would try to stop the leak once again with mud. BP eventually placed 5.5 million feet of boom (barriers placed in water) to absorb the oil. They have also paid over $40 billion in clean-up fees. This problem wasnt one that could be solved by the local or even the state government, and the federal government stepped in one-week after the spill, launching a full investigation into what caused it. President Obama even visited the gulf coast several times after the spill to talk to the people of Grand Isle, LA. On April 29, the same day Governor Jindal declared a state of emergency, Obama vowed to employ every resource possible to solve this problem. Obama announced a $20 billion spill response fund. The very next day, he passed a ruling that all future drilling projects be stopped until a cause was found for the BP spill. By May 28, he announced a six-month moratorium on drilling, stopping all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The main thing to be affected by the oil spill was the environment. Six months after the oil spill, over 8,000 dead animals had been reported. Mostly birds and sea turtles, these animals died from ingesting oil of the lack of sea coral due to the spill. As early as May 3, dead sea

turtles began washing up on Mississippis coast. There was a vast No fishing zone which hurt Grand Isles economy tremendously. By May 19, oil had reached the shores of Louisiana. BP, in their defense, takes full responsibility for the spill and is committed to a long-term funding to research the Gulf of Mexico eco-system better. Their regret is shown by a statement on their website: We regret the impacts on the environment and livelihoods of those in the communities affected. We have and continue to put in place measures to help ensure it does not happen again.

Resources: "11 Facts about the BP Oil Spill." Do Something. Do Something, n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-bp-oil-spill>. "100 Days of the BP Spill: A Timeline." Time US. Time Magazine, 28 July 2010. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2006455,00.html>. "Deepwater Horizon Accident and Response." BP. British Petroleum, n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/gulf-of-mexico-restoration/deepwater-horizonaccident-and-response.html>.