GULF OIL SPILL IMPACTS GO ON

5 Years After BP Oil Spill, Effects Linger And Recovery Is Slow

Debbie Elliott, April 20, 2015 (National Public Radio)

“Five years ago, BP's out-of-control oil well deep in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. Eleven workers were killed on the Deepwater Horizon rig…[T]he blast unleashed the nation's worst offshore environmental catastrophe…[O]il gushed from the Macondo well for nearly three months. More than three million barrels of Louisiana light crude fouled beaches and wetlands from Texas to Florida, affecting wildlife and livelihoods…Today, the spill's impacts linger…[Because the oil coated the roots of mangrove trees, they died and] without the mangroves to hold the islands together, within three years most of [the] islands were gone…Dolphin deaths continue, oil is still on the bottom of the ocean, tar balls keep coming up…[and] nobody really is able to say what we may find in five years [or] 10 years… BP has already spent $28 billion on response and cleanup and to pay economic claims to oil spill victims. He says the company has changed its safety procedures, and pre-deployed capping stacks around the world that could more quickly shut down an out-of-control well…[but nobody knows what the long-term environmental consequences will be]…” click here for more

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