BP oil spill 7-year anniversary: National Wildlife Federation discusses funding priorities for Gulf

Where were you April 20, 2010? If you are like most Americans, you flipped the dial (we watched TV then) and saw a fire in the Gulf of Mexico. It may not have seemed like much at the time. Like all tragedies, it's often impossible to fully stomach the weight of such incidents until much later. And the BP oil spill was no different.

It took until July 15 that year to seal the Macondo well, the oil gushing to the tune of millions of gallons following the fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig owned by Transocean. In the months that followed, thousands of brown pelicans, Kemp's ridley sea turtles, herons, and fish perished. Even dolphins' offspring died, many of them washing up as premies on the beaches of Louisiana's coasts.

Today, Collin O’Mara, president and CEO, National Wildlife Federation; along with Ryan Sikes, Gulf of Mexico staff scientist for NWF; and David Muth, NWF's Gulf program director, weighed in on funding priorities for the Gulf. Remarkably, it's only this month they said that funds have actually started flowing from the massive BP payout to affected Gulf interests.

On its website, the NWF states, "On April 4, 2016, the Department of Justice and the five Gulf states finalized a global settlement with BP for $20.8 billion dollars, to be paid out over the next 15 years."

Importantly, though, NWF calculates that about $16 billion will be going to ecological restoration. The 2012 Restore Act dictates that funds from the Clean Water Act go to Gulf states.

Further, each Gulf state - affected in varying degrees by the catastrophe - will receive a portion of BP dollars each year through 2031. Specifically, $4.4 billion will go to the Gulf region via the RESTORE Act to be used for ecosystem and economic restoration and recovery. Another $8.8 billion is available under the Oil Pollution Act’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process to restore areas where wildlife were damaged by the spill and where recreational areas were affected.

The breakdown is as follows:

- Texas will get $37 million annually

- Louisiana will receive $372 million annually

- Mississippi will get $50 million annually

- Alabama will receive $51 million annually

- Florida will get $74 million annually

NWF has created a handy, interactive map that delineates where dollars are going. Divided by states, one can key in whatever criteria interests them - i.e. click on Louisiana, then punch the Port Fourchon emblem - and information about how funds are being used pops up.

This reporter asked whether scientific studies of Corexit had been showing evidence of damage, and if lessons had been learned from the Gulf spill that would prohibit its use going forward.

Sikes took the questions, starting with the first part. He said a lot of research has been and is being done, for example with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (or GOMRI). "They're in their seventh year of research looking at impacts of Corexit," he said. "We know it amplifies toxicity," he said in part. As for whether they'd learned their lessons, he said he wasn't at liberty to say.

NWF said that while so far, only a quarter of the $16 billion has been "committed to projects across the Gulf," the process is, apparently complicated and includes funds from criminal fines resulting from a $2.54 billion 2013 Justice Department settlement.

While the accounting of the spill is fairly complex and difficult for many to understand, seeing real results happen will be both welcome and obvious as they occur. For example, land loss in Louisiana is occurring at a frightening clip, and losing precious wetlands means losing habitat and nutrients — So if projects such as Timbalier Islands Barrier Island Restoration are successful, they will restore dune and beach habitat as well as reduce storm surge impacts, among other plusses. Likewise, the Isles Derniers Barrier Island Restoration project will restore those islands, offering beach, dune, and back barrier marsh habitat to protect them from storm surge impacts.

With the impact of climate change, glaciers are melting and seas are rising: New Orleans along with Miami and New York are extremely vulnerable to sea rise. The BP funds to help coastal restoration can help alleviate a plague that still challenges a recovering gulf, including oil still on the sea floor.

To see scientific studies detailing the effects of the dispersant Corexit on the Gulf of Mexico following the spill, click here.

For more information on how funds have been allocated in the Gulf, click here.

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons Images. "Health, safety and environment (HSE) workers contracted by BP clean up oil on a beach in Port Fourchon, La., May 23, 2010. Hundreds of contracted HSE workers are cleaning up oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which began washing up onto area beaches a month after the drilling unit exploded." Source:; Author: PO3 Patrick Kelley.

BP heads back to court Monday: Wants to downplay amount of oil that spewed into Gulf

This morning, the National Wildlife Federation e-mailed a press release, which I received. They remind that on Monday, BP heads back to court "to try and convince U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier that the company’s Deepwater Horizon well spewed just 2.45 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico—significantly less than the 4.1 million barrels the government’s team of scientists has estimated."

The NWF, rightly, points out that BP "has a long history of downplaying the size of the spill—the company pled guilty to lying to Congress on this very topic."

Any decrease in the official estimate of the volume of the spill would greatly benefit BP’s bottom line, NWF says. "Under the Clean Water Act, BP will have to pay anywhere from $1,100 to $4,300 per barrel spilled, depending on the degree of negligence found.

Reducing the estimated size of the spill will also hurt the outlook for the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to the RESTORE Act, 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines will be sent back to the region affected by the disaster."

Here are some of the areas that NWF urgently wants addressed:

• Deep sea impacts: Just yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a study indicating that it may take decades for the deep sea ecosystem to recover.
• Dolphin deaths: NOAA’s investigation into the unprecedented dolphin and whale mortalities in the Gulf of Mexico—particularly bottlenose dolphins—continues.
• Oiled shorelines: In June, a 40,000-pound tar mat was found off a Louisiana barrier island and 200 miles of the Louisiana coast remain oiled. Tar balls from the disaster regularly foul the beaches and coastlines of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
• Blue crabs: Crabbers from Florida to Louisiana are complaining about low crab catches this year and scientists are investigating the oil disaster as a potential cause. 

NWF writes that BP is "...trying to walk away from the Gulf with as little liability as possible, most notably in its attempts to limit settlement payouts to businesses harmed by the spill."

Monday issues in the second phase of the trial, which will determine the company’s civil liabilities for violating the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act and other federal environmental laws.

The Clean Water Act civil fines are meant to be punitive, while the Oil Pollution Act requires that BP pay to repair the damage to the Gulf.

For more information, please click here.

Bold marks/hyperlinks are largely those of the writer's.
Note: an earlier version of this blog incorrectly listed the NWF as the National Fish & Wildlife Federation.
Caption for photo: An egret in the Gulf of Mexico was oiled because of the BP spill. Credits: U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service