Why it Happened?

On April 20, 2010, the oil rig Deep water Horizon had a dire malfunction. Both its manual and emergency blowout preventers failed to deploy when the worst-case scenario became a reality. An oil rig blowout has the potential to occur when some combination of mud, oil, natural gas, and water erupt from the well, surge up the drill pipe, and ignite at the surface, exploding into an inferno.

BP has been blamed more than almost any other potential culprit in this oil spill. They are an easy target, as it was their oil well that caused this spill (leased from Transocean). BP has been called in the gas/oil industry what the blood diamond industry is called in the jewelry world. In other words, BP has been accused of doing what makes money first and what is right/safe second. It has also been reported by the staff of Deep water Horizon that a BP executive made decisions on site prior to the spill that put the site in danger. A supervisor on the site wanted to close the well off, but a BP executive who was on site said, “Well my process is different. And I think we’re going do it this way.” It showed a breakdown in the chain of command and BP overstepping their boundaries. An executive doesn’t know what is safe and what is not. That is not their job. Also, BP had ordered an increase in the speed of the drilling, which caused several problems. So, is BP to blame for this spill by overstepping their boundaries and putting profit before safety? Or, are they simply receiving blame due to being the owners, for lack of a better word, of this oil well?

The Deep water Horizon staff had been ordered to increase drilling as well as other such things that caused problems on the site. Although the orders came from a BP executive, the staff is arguably responsible for the decisions made. They always have the ability to say no. Also, when chunks of the seal (what’s used to stop a catastrophic blowout) were found in the drilling fluid a supervisor on site said to the man who brought forth this information said, “Oh, it’s no big deal.” This appears to be negligence at its worst. So, are the staff members of Deep water Horizon to blame because of their poor decisions on the rig? Or, did they have no choice under the pressures of BP executives or did they even realize the dangers?

Who’s to Blame?The British Petroleum

The Deep Water Horizon

What is being done to stop the flow of oil spill?

For the last several days, BP has been trying to use sub-sea robots, operating at 5,000 feet below the surface, to engage the blowout preventer and turn off the flow, which seems to amount to about 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) per day. With each day that passes, the chance of this working would seem to go down. If the blow out preventer didn't activate properly originally, and hasn't engaged during past attempts by robots. There are two alternative approaches BP is using to cutting off the flow. One approach is to drill a second well to intercept the first one. This plan is expected to take a-lot of months. The other approach is designing and fabricating an underwater dome that would trap escaping oil near the sea floor and funnel it for collection. According to the NOAA this approach has been used successfully in shallower waters but never has been this deep.

What is being done to clean up the oil?

To clean up the oil spill there are domes, skimmers, booms, controlled burning and chemical dispersants. At this period of time they have collected 685,062 gallons of oil and water missed into it. The rest of the oil that doesn’t get cleaned up will evaporate or breaks up and floats on the surface or will sink to the bottom. A-lot of the oil cannot be collected because it is to thin to pick up. Most of that will break up naturally.

Chemical break downAbout 100,000 gallons of chemical dispersant has been dropped from the air into the Gulf, where it breaks up the oil slick into smaller droplets. The droplets then get mixed into the water, where they are subjected to ocean currents

SkimmersOnce broken up, skimming vessels come in and collect what's left. The droplets are collected in drums and some of that material gets cleaned and recycled. The rest is properly disposed. Skimmers can only capture about 10 percent of the volume of spilled oil.

Controlled burn They conduct an in-situ burn in which they used a fireproof boom to corral dense parts of the oil spill, moving it to another location and then burning it. In general, burning is probably the most effective method for cleaning up heavy oil like that.

Impacts On Our Environment This event impacts our ecosystem because it has killed a-lot of species of animal and even may have made that type of animal endangered or even extinct. A-lot of people put so much time into helping the animals get healthy again and to clean all the oil off. They also put them in a controlled environment so they would be safe. It also killed a-lot of plants at the bottom of ocean and by doing that the creatures eat the plants will have no food and die.

It impact humankind because Mexico doesn’t have a-lot of clean water and that just made it worst. It also cost a-lot of money to clean up. It also took a-lot of peoples time and money to make sure this won’t happen again and that they are doing there best to clean it up as fast as they can so they can have water to swim in and to drink.

How Does This Relate To Our A.O.IThis relates to out A.O.I which is Health and Social Education because this oil spill can effect a lot of peoples health. It might effect there health because the water they get might not be clean enough and they could drink it and get sick or the food they eat might be washed by non clean water. This doesn’t just affect humans it could also affect animals to because the water they swim in could have oil in it so they would have oil on them and get sick. They also might drink the dirty water or get food from and and get very ill. The spill relates to social education because we need to learn about these things that happen all around the world so we can have a better understanding about it. When we grow up if we want to do something involving that kind of stuff we will have a better understanding of it.

BY:ALBERT BLOOM 7A

BY:ALBERT BLOOM 7A