Birds, turtles, dolphins, fish and whales; these are all the biggest victims of the 2010 BP oil spill that pumped an unprecedented amount of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 straight days. But can anything be done about its negative environmental impact, which scientists say are ongoing?
Yes, said representatives of the National Wildlife Federation in a conference call Monday morning, but not cheaply.
The presentation, Nine Things You Didn’t Know About the Deep Water Horizon Disaster and How We Can Restore the Gulf of Mexico, included a vast amount of newly released information about the severe impact the spill has had on the gulf, even six years after it happened.
Collin O’Mara, CEO and president of the NWF, said now is the most important time to start the process of restoring damaged areas of the Gulf.
“There will be a significant amount of resources,” O’Mara said. “This report is here to show us what it’s like today, six years after the spill. Many people have forgotten and moved along.”
According to Amanda Fuller, the deputy director of NWF's Gulf Restoration Campaign, BP has had to pay over $20.8 billion – yes that’s billion with a “B”– as part of a settlement between the oil giant and the Department of Justice. Roughly $16 billion will be allocated for Gulf restoration.
“No one has ever attempted a restoration project of this scale before,” Fuller said.
Fuller explained that terms specify that the payouts will be starting in April of 2017, and will have a roughly 17-year payout term, meaning that this is going to last a while.
“The process is going to be a long one, quite frankly,” Ryan Fikes, a restoration scientist with the Gulf Restoration Campaign said.
According to Fikes, the report — over 2,000 pages of data collected over the past six years — shows that the female population of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (the worlds smallest sea turtles, and arguably the cutest ones around) has dwindled some 20 percent in the wake of the oil gusher. That translates into “95,000 hatchlings never realized”.
In addition to sea turtle populations shrinking, Fikes says 93 species of birds have been impacted and 2.5 trillion – yes trillion with a “T”– fish larvae were killed. It is still not understood how much of an impact that will have on the fishing industry.
Dolphins have also struggled in the wake of the disaster, namely with respiratory issues and fertility failure. To make matters worse, Fikes says that 30 percent of the oil is “missing.”
Fikes also says it will take 40-50 years to recover.
So what can be done to restore the Gulf? That’s up to the federal Restore Council to create a plan. Money will start flowing in April 2017, which gives the council a year to devise a plan.
It is not entirely clear what Florida will be getting out of the over $20 billion dollars from BP to restore the gulf, but estimates from Fuller as well as Florida policy expert, Jessica Koelsch say that Florida will receive somewhere in the ball park of more than $1 billion.
Several different revenue streams will bring in that money, says Koelsch, including the criminal lawsuit against BP, or the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, the Restore Act fund, and the Oil Pollution Act fund.
This money will be distributed proportionately throughout the 23 Florida Gulf Coast counties, based on their distance from the spill.
According to Koelsch, Tampa Bay will be in good hands thanks to the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which will oversee efforts to protect coastal health. Studies show that cleaning and maintaining habitats in our estuaries is a key way to help restore the Gulf of Mexico.
“These estuaries function as nurseries. So improving their health should benefit numerous species and the Gulf’s food web as a whole,” Fikes said.
Regular audits and “different strings attached” to funding will help ensure these funds are used for only restoration. There’s no way the bay area will be able to pull what Biloxi, Mississippi did - using about $15 million of their initial economic settlement with BP to fund a stadium for their new minor league team.
This money, however, will not be used for say, a new Rays stadium.