Why the God-like Weapon Failed
There is speculation as to why the blowout preventer for the Deepwater Horizon failed. In the oil industry, blowout preventers are seen as a god-like weapon, capable of stopping events like this one. Initially, it was thought the blowout preventer aboard the Horizon simply could not handle the rush of hydrocarbons. However, later reports showed that it was poor maintenance that led to the catastrophe: dead batteries, leaking hydraulic tubes, and poor valves, all contributed to the failure of the blowout preventer. The company responsible for the rig, Transocean, appears to never have done the necessary 90-day maintenance on the blowout preventer. It is recommended this maintenance be conducted every 3 to 5 years, by both the manufacturer and industry standard. The blowout preventer on the Horizon was a decade old: a sign of incredible negligence.
Now that the blowout preventer absolutely failed to stop the incoming hydrocarbons, the only thing that could have saved the Deepwater Horizon was to cut the power to the engines and let the rig drift away from the well. Natural gas was pouring all over the rig, and it was only a matter of time before it would burst into flames; however, no one in the engine room knew that was happening.
Combusting Engines
The Deepwater Horizon had six engines in total. These engines were designed to do two things: 1) move the Horizon rig wherever it needed to go, and 2) park the rig on top of a well by using the engines to hold the rig in place. Currently, engines 3 and 6 were operating. As the two engines were running, they began to work faster and faster. Normally, if an engine were to start accelerating abnormally, there is a failsafe device – known as the “rig saver” – that would shut down the engine. That device never activated, just as many fail safes did not work the night of the disaster. The engines kept going faster and faster. And just as the engine crew was about to investigate, engine 3 exploded.
Right after engine 3, engine 6 exploded. It is here that fire engulfed the Deepwater Horizon, and the ship was certainly lost. 11 crew members of the 115 lost their lives in the bursting of the well, and the subsequent explosion. The rest of the crew made it to the lifeboats, or jumped into the gulf, to be rescued by the Coast Guard shortly thereafter. The Deepwater Horizon sank two days later, burnt to a crisp. The problems, however, would only just begin. Now, it was a race against time to plug up the well quickly before there was major leak damage. This would not be the case.
The Repercussions: Fishing
The repercussions of the oil spill were vast and far reaching. From an economic standpoint, much can be said about the effect of the oil spill on certain industries. These industries include tourism and fishing. In Louisiana, seafood has an impact of $2.4 billion on the economy. Because of the oil spill, fishing in federal waters for seafood production had been halted by government agencies for 23 percent of federal waters. At the worst part of the spill, that number rose to 37 percent. These include some of the Gulf of Mexico’s richest spots for oysters, clams, and shrimp. According to a study, approximately $247 million dollars of seafood that could not be harvested because of closures. Another study suggests that the total loss in fishing opportunities is around $585 million. The impact on small fishing businesses was decimating. With such losses, many small businesses had to either close, or turn to other alternatives.
One such alternative was performing spill cleanup. Seeing that there is a vast amount of oil covering the waters of Louisiana, many fishermen decided to use their boats to take more lucrative work to perform cleanup duties. This impacts the seafood economy of Louisiana even further, seeing that the remaining 70 percent of seafood would not be harvested to its potential. This also impacts restaurants and the like. Now, they will have to turn to foreign markets for seafood goods, with the local fish suppliers occupied with cleanup practices. This complicates life for Louisiana fishermen. However, as life looked bleak for the fishermen of Louisiana, another market was thriving.
The Repercussions: Hotels
Hotels in oil affected parts of Louisiana were being booked by the truck load. In one such area, hotels saw fishermen and oil field works – the typical guests – being replaced by reports and cleanup crews. These guests filled up hotel after hotel, generating a lot of profit for these businesses. And with the heightened demand in rooms, comes more demand for hotel support staff. Hotels were actually hard pressed to find more staff, and specifically, maids. Hotels need maids to be able to clean the rooms, and with the rooms being occupied by oil cleanup workers, the job was going to be even messier than ever to clean up. Even with this surge in hotel bookings for cleanup workers, and the subsequent hotel job creation, it is difficult to say if it will offset the losses in other industries.
The Repercussions: Shipping
Another area to analyze is the shipping industry. Since many ships use the Mississippi river and ports along the coasts, running into oil can be an issue. If a ship were to run into heavy oil, that ship would have to get clear of the oil, drop anchor, and have its hull cleaned before entering the coast or any rivers. This does prevent further damage to any coast lines and marshes; however, it does add cost to these shipping companies, both in time and money. Fortunately, there were no significant delays during the height of the spill. At one company, they found ships were delayed by about two hours to avoid the oil spill. Compared to some of the multi-day delays ships sometimes have to go through, two hours is very little in the shipping industry. As such, the shipping industry did not experience much upheaval over the spill.
The Repercussions: Animal Life
In the year after the oil spill, many mammals of the Gulf of Mexico were exposed to the harm of the spilled chemicals. Scientists suggest that the true death toll to mammals, while unknown, is statistically likely to be in the 5,000 range. Many dolphins in the areas near the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon were also affected. Areas such as Barataria Bay saw that local dolphins were afflicted to lung disease at five times than normal. This is just a small amount compared to other findings.
For sea turtles in the region, more than 1,000 sea turtles died because the spilled oil. Many of these poor creatures died with oil in their mouths and throats. It is estimated that tens of thousands of turtles were exposed to the oil from the spill.
Seabirds were also afflicted by this catastrophe. Approximately one million seabirds were most likely killed because of the oil spill. Coastal bird deaths are between 600,000 and 800,000. Clearly, local bird populations were extremely hurt by the oil spill.
Fish populations were also disrupted by the oil spill. When conducting toxicity tests in research laboratories, local fish showed signs of: disrupted growth, tissue damage, immune system damage, changes in swimming behavior and overall viability. Research also showed that more than 60 species of fish was likely afflicted by the oil spill. Studies emphasized damages suffered by newborn Atlantic bluefish tuna. The oil spill happened during the six-week birth period. Laboratory examinations of the tuna showed that there were serious heart defects in the newborn tuna. These defects were also present in other species of tunas, swordfish, billfish, amberjack, and other large predators that roamed near the spill zone. Clearly, the oil spill cause massive fatalities for animals, mammals and fish alike.
3. Conclusion
The damages suffered by the groups discussed in this report are far reaching, and long lasting. Because of the lack of care demonstrated by BP and the management of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, billions of dollars were lost, millions of animals lost their lives, and eleven rig crew members lost their lives. Had there been proper maintenance on even one of the Horizon’s super critical failsafe systems, the disaster could have been avoided in the moments prior. It should be the aim of every oil drilling company, rig crew member, and associate to ensure that such a disaster never occurs again.