Deepwater Horizon oil spill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "2010 oil spill" and "BP oil spill" redirect here. For other oil spills in 2010, see 2010 oil spill (disambiguation). For the 2006 oil spill involving BP, see Prudhoe Bay oil spill. For the drilling rig and explosion, see Deepwater Horizon (disambiguation).
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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout)15-1L(11 is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and may be continuing to see p."81 It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry." 9 11010 The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the 20 April 2010 explosion of Deepwater Horizon, which drilled on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. The explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others.11210n 15 July 2010, the gushing wellhead was capped,I131after it had released about 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3) of crude oi1.121An estimated 53,000 barrels per day (8,400 m3/d) escaped from the well just before it was capped."-1 On 19 September 2010, the relief well process was successfully completed, and the federal government declared the well "effectively dead"." In August 2011, oil and oil sheen covering several square miles of water were reported surfacing not far from BP's Macondo well)- Scientific analysis confirmed the oil is a chemical match for Macondo 252.11'_1147-1 The Coast Guard said the oil was too dispersed to recover.1-mi In March 2012, a "persistent oil seep"1"-1near the Macondo 252 well was reported."'-1 More sightings in October 2012 prompted another investigation into the source of the continued oil seepage."
The spill caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and to the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries.12131224 Skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, sand-filled barricades along shorelines, and Corexit dispersant was used in an attempt to protect hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands, and estuaries from the spreading oil. A 2012 study found that Corexit made the oil 52 times more toxic and instead allowed hydrocarbons to more deeply penetrate beaches and possibly groundwater.1211p41125_1 Scientists also reported immense underwater plumes of dissolved oil not visible at the surfacel2klas well as an 80-square-mile (210 km2) "kill zone" surrounding the blown well." In late November 2010, 4,200 square miles (11,000 km2) of the Gulf were re-closed to shrimping after tar balls were found in shrimpers' nets." The amount of Louisiana shoreline affected by oil grew from 287 miles (462 km) in July to 320 miles (510 km) in late November 2010.1x1 In January 2011, an oil spill commissioner reported that tar balls continue to wash up, oil sheen trails are seen in the wake of fishing boats, wetlands marsh grass remains fouled and dying, and crude oil lies offshore in deep water and in fine silts and sands onshore.1-3-04A research team found oil on the bottom of the seafloor in late February 2011 that did not seem to be degrading.";'-1 On 26 May 2011, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality extended the state of emergency related to the oil spill." By 9 July 2011, roughly 491 miles (790 kilometers) of coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida remained contaminated by BP oil, according to a NOAA spokesperson." In October 2011, a NOAA report stated that dolphins and whales continue to die at twice the normal rate. 3" In April 2012, scientists reported finding alarming numbers of mutated crab, shrimp and fish they believe to be the result ofchemicals released during the oil spi11.1351 Tar balls continue to wash up along the Gulf coast two years after the spill began.13-61 In April 2012, oil was found dotting 200 miles of Louisiana's coast.W1In October 2012, the United States Coast Guard confirmed that samples taken from a new oil sheen at the site of the spill were from the Deepwater Horizon.1361
East of Mobile Bay, Alabama, the damage to the fragile environment from BP oil spill clean-up crews and vehicles on the beach exceeded damage done to the beaches by the oil spill itself. Beach erosion and disruption of plant and animal life-cycles caused by clean-up crew vehicles continues as of April, 2011 despite repeated requests by the Orange Beach Alabama Mayor and other local officials to leave the area immediately. Clean up crews also deter tourists from visiting local hotels and beaches where they are staying and working due to a increase in criminal activity caused by the influx of workers to the affected regions.114 Ordinarily the presence of cleanup crews after oil or diesel spills often helps deter birds from (nesting in) the affected areas potentially lessening the number of wildlife that could have been impacted however the barrier islands finite boundaries offer few or no alternative nesting sites that were suitable for many critically endangered species and no doubt some perished due to clean up crews ubiquitous presence.
In January 2011 the White House oil spill commission released its final report on the causes of the oil spill. They blamed BP and its partners for making a series of cost-cutting decisions and the lack of a system to ensure well safety. They also concluded that the spill was not an isolated incident caused by "rogue industry or government officials", but that "The root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur".1'-'-mI After its own internal probe, BP admitted that it made mistakes which led to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.L411 In June 2010 BP set up a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the oil spill. To July 2011, the fund has paid $4.7 billion to 198,475 claimants. In 2011, the fund had nearly 1 million claims.t421
In September 2011, the U.S. government published its final investigative report on the accident.M In essence, that report states that the main cause was the defective cement job, and put most of the fault for the oil spill with BP, also faulting Deepwater Horizon operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton.t4411451 The first spill-related arrest was in April 2012; an engineer was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting 300 text messages showing BP knew the flow rate was three times higher than initial claims by the company, and knew that Top Kill was unlikely to succeed, but claimed otherwise .14-61-411L481 On 14 November 2012, BP and the US Department of Justice reached a settlement. BP will pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments and plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the deaths of the 11 workers. The Justice Department also filed criminal charges against three BP employees. BP still faces payouts to thousands of fishermen, businesses and others harmed by the spill, and what may be the largest penalty of all, the fines under the Clean Water Act, which could reach as much as $21 billion. On 28 November the EPA announced that BP will be temporarily banned from seeking new contracts with the US government because of the oil company's "lack of business integrity" during the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster14-`1.
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With reference to the above briefly explain the following concepts:
1. accountability; e.,-`11,,,"'f,"`AA*47('1„..,, vo„c Accountability is the corn, p't in ethics and governance with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as responsibility,111 answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. 2. externalities;
Positive externalities are benefits that are infeasible to charge to provide; negative externalities are costs that are infeasible to charge to not provide. 3. eco-justice;
Ecojustice applies the concept of justice to the environment. Many features of ecojustice are related to the philosophies of other environmental groups.
Supporters of ecojustice attack the historic lack of regard for non-human parts of the environment. They encourage respect for living things as well as the various parts of the biosphere.
Advocates of ecojustice reject the idea that the worth of a thing is its value to human beings. They argue that other parts of nature have value entirely independent of their usefulness to humanity.
The primary argument of ecojustice is that the natural world must be included in an evaluation of ethics or morality. Ecojustice supporters say that all living things have some intrinsic value, and people must be aware of this to act ethically.
4. sustainable development; and Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In ecology, sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time, a necessary precondition for human well-being. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems
5. triple bottom line reporting.
The triple bottom line (abbreviated as TBL or 3BL, and also known as people, planet, profit or the three pillarsW) captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, ecological and social. With the ratification of the United Nations and ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the ecoBudget standard for reporting ecological footprint.