Full impact of Gulf oil spill still unknown; debate begins

It has been a month since BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and began spewing millions of gallons of oil from a fractured pipe a mile below the water’s surface.

By BP’s own estimate, now widely acknowledged to be low — perhaps even very low — more than 6 million gallons of oil have been released into the Gulf. That’s roughly half of what was released into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground, producing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

It has taken a month for BP to demonstrate its first success in capturing some of the oil and natural gas as they gush from the broken pipe. During that time, a huge oil slick roughly the size of New Jersey has developed in the Gulf, untold deposits have settled on the ocean floor, and the first heavy crude has begun washing ashore in Louisiana.

BP says it is now capturing about 200,000 gallons of oil with its containment device, but underwater video makes it clear that what’s being captured is only part of what’s being released. It’s quite likely more oil has already been spilled by Deepwater Horizon than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

Maybe more, a lot more

Several scientists testifying before Congress this week said the total outflow could be more than 100,000 barrels a day — a hundred times more than BP’s initial estimate and 20 times more than the estimate that BP later reluctantly acknowledged. If the scientists’ highest estimate is accurate, this spill eclipsed the Exxon Valdez in three days and is now 10 times worse. There is no reliable way to estimate at this time. All that is known is that BP says it is capturing what it originally said was being lost, a significant volume continues to escape, and if efforts to plug the pipe are not successful in coming days, it will be as much as two months before new wells can be drilled that would relieve all the pressure.

The Exxon Valdez disaster resulted in new law, the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, and it is clear that Deepwater Horizon will bring its own round of legislation. BP has been designated as the “responsible party” under federal law, which not only makes it responsible for the cost of capping and cleanup, but puts the company in charge of the operation. The government has been left to advise and assist. And congressmen — at least some of them — have been left to demand more transparency in the process. Any images that BP made of what is going on on the ocean’s floor have been released only after congressional pressure.

Obviously, legislation is needed that mandates more safety mechanisms to protect workers on drilling platforms — 11 died in the April 20 explosion — and more reliable shut-off valves in the event of an accident.

But more, a legal mechanism is needed that establishes liability for containment and cleanup, but requires the government to step in when an accident has devolved into a disaster.

Timid or prudent?

We are not convinced that the Obama administration has been as aggressive as it could have been, but we can understand if administration officials were wary of taking ownership of BP’s problem. Such a move could have resulted in courts absolving BP of financial responsibility. It is worth remembering that in 2008, nearly 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill, the Supreme Court of the United States cut a lower court’s finding against Exxon Mobil from $2.5 billion to $500 million. The people of Alaska were the losers.

The inevitable congressional hearings will shed some light on what BP could have done differently, what the administration should have done, and why it didn’t, and, most importantly, what can be done to minimize the possibility of disasters in the future and assure a better response.

In the meantime, efforts will continue to plug the underwater gusher, and residents of the coast will continue to watch satellite images to see how much larger this 7,500 square mile oil slick becomes, and where the ocean currents take it. There is still the potential for this spill to foul hundreds of miles of beaches in the Gulf of Mexico, to swing through the Florida Keys and head up the East Coast, and even to become an international incident if the currents carry the slick to Cuba.