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The Daily
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015 POLITICS
Proposed regulations combat BP spill aftermath
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ENVIRONMENT
courtesy of THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gulf still adjusting after 2010 spill
BY EMILIE HEBERT emiliehebert@lsureveille.com
BY CAITIE BURKES cburkes@lsureveille.com Though President Barack Obama sat in the Oval Office on April 20, 2010, his thoughts were somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig had just discharged 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, costing 11 people their lives. The Obama administration issued a new set of regulations for offshore drilling on April 13, five years after the disaster. The new regulations have two goals: improve offshore drilling equipment and ensure out-ofcontrol wells can be sealed in an emergency. Officials blamed the spill on a defective blowout sensor. Lawmakers plan to fix this glitch by creating stronger regulations to prevent oil and gas from overflowing the sensors. One such rule would mandate the blowout sensors in wells to have two shear rams instead of one. These rams would cut through the drill pipe and seal the well, achieving both policy goals. The proposed regulation’s estimated price tag is $880 million over the next decade. However, these policy changes are not the first. University professor David Dismukes is the executive director for the Center for Energy Studies in the Department of Envi ron menta l Sciences. He has also written several essays on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Dismukes DISMUKES said a moratorium, or freeze period, was established immediately after the accident, suspending all new drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico when oil prices were starting to increase. It lasted six months. “It did force the entire oil and
see POLICY, page 4
Volume 119 · No. 128
THE AFTERMATH Immediately after the blowout, University faculty applied their diverse fields of expertise to advise BP to contain the spill. They also executed research to assess the consequences of the disaster, as well as to predict long-term environmental effects. Biological and agricultural engineering professor Chandra Theegala made national headlines when his research team developed a new oil skimmer, facilitating separation of oil and water for spill pickup, in a record time — eight days. At the time of the oil spill, separating oil and water was a slow process because water had to be hauled back to the shore for the separation process, according to Theegala. Building a boat strong enough to carry equipment used get the oil and dump the water into the sea instantly, Theegala changed skimmer technology that May. “We made [the whole system] in eight days, and this wasn’t like in an industrial plant where you have many workers,” Theegala said. “The motivation for this, I’d say, was the timing. If we delayed it further, then there wouldn’t be a need for it, so we [couldn’t] take two months.” Theegala’s team applied for a oil skimmer patent in 2011 and expect to hear back soon, as the process takes several years, he said. Despite the new technology’s effectiveness, Theegala considers the oil skimmer a
The brown pelican is an iconic symbol of the Gulf Coast, home to a thriving ecosystem and booming economy. Five years ago, the species became the face of a much more sinister environmental disaster. Images of pelicans slicked in oil pulled at the heartstrings of Americans as millions of barrels of petroleum gushed into the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded five years ago today. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 58 percent of all dead and injured birds collected from the time of the explosion to July 2010 were brown pelicans. Veterinary students, graduate students, faculty and University School of Veterinary Medicine staff jumped to get hands-on disaster response experience. The workers, who were paid by BP, helped take in animals needing medical care at the rehabilitation centers at Fort Jackson in Buras, Louisiana, and later in Hammond, Louisiana. The work days were long — 12 hours most of the time — with workers dressed in personal protection equipment in muggy May temperatures. They stabilized the animals, provided medical attention and washed them before releasing them into their natural habitats. The Vet School’s Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana also provided medical attention on campus to 34 non-oiled and injured birds, two oiled birds and a sea turtle. Oil-soaked birds were unable to fly or cool themselves and often lost their natural skin oils when the petroleum washed off. Veterinary medicine Rebecca McConnico, who organized the team of workers from the
see OIL SPILL, page 11
see PELICANS, page 4
Deepwater Horizon: 5 Years Later BY JOSE ALEJANDRO BASTIDAS jbastidas@lsureveille.com
O
n the fifth anniversary one of the largest environmental disaster in American history, today oil industry professionals’ and government officials’ minds are tainted with high-pressured memories from years ago. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig took the lives of 11 workers and released nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. University faculty and students assisted in the aftermath of the blowout, giving expert advice on research initiatives, developing new methods of containment and volunteering to help with cleanup. Five years later, the College of Engineering’s commitment to relief, research and prevention remains a valuable asset for industry professionals and government officials eager to assess the damage done by this unexpected, but preventable, tragedy. “One thing that everybody should realize is how much research LSU has helped in not only containing the spill but also helping to understand the magnitude of the effects it has had on the biota [biological makeup] and everything else, including the economy,” said Kalliat Valsaraj, chemical engineering professor and University vice president of research and economic development. “[The University] has played a major role in understanding the catastrophic spill and working toward applying those lessons for any future accidents that we might encounter.”