The Deepwater Horizon Tragedy: 15 Years Of Ecological Restoration Are Underway

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The  Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 15 years ago, killing 11 people and injuring another 17. More than 100 million gallons of oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest marine oil spill in US history. Years of ecological destruction followed, and the catastrophic legacy of this disaster is still felt today by people, wildlife, and coastal and ocean habitats.

An estimated 60,000 barrels of oil spewed out of the damaged Deepwater Horizon well each day and through the seafloor for 87 days, ultimately spewing 134 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico. Toxic sludge washed up on 1,300 miles of shoreline — the equivalent of driving from New Orleans to New York City. Areas from Texas to Florida were impacted. Oiled beaches and wetlands killed tens of thousands of birds, sea turtles, and dolphins, among other marine life.

The oil spill and the extreme measures used to help remove the oil caused immediate and long-term health effects on coastal communities. The impacts of this tragedy are still being felt today — and it’s worse than we were initially led to believe.

The ocean conservation advocacy group Oceana has conducted research into the Deepwater Horizon spill. Their report includes startling new information.

• The deep-sea footprint of the oil spill covered an area almost nine times greater than previously reported. The spill spread over 1,105 square miles of ocean.
• The impact of the spill led to the loss of more than 25,000 jobs and $2.3 billion in industry output.

• Small dolphin population densities declined by up to 43%, while those of sperm whales declined up to 31%.
• The population density of Cuvier’s beaked whales and Gervais’ beaked whales declined by 75% and 83%, respectively.
• US Coast Guard service members involved in the cleanup suffered from long-term endocrine and metabolic conditions.
• Some Gulf fish species, such as white marlin, showed little to no recovery, as of a 2021 study.

The ocean conservation advocacy group Oceana asks us to remember the destructive long-term legacy that oil spills leave behind as Congress threatens to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. Offshore drilling puts our coastal communities and economy at risk, including millions of jobs and billions of dollars in gross domestic product (GDP).

There are significant risks with offshore drilling today. More than 7,300 oil spills occurred in federal waters between 2010 and 2022 — an average of over one spill every day. Offshore oil and gas drilling causes harmful pollution at every phase of the process, including exploration, production, and transportation.

Despite these threats, several oil companies are trying to push the limits and drill even deeper than ever before, where the risk of a catastrophic spill is higher because spills are harder and more costly to clean up.

Deepwater Horizon Restoration Projects Continue

The 2025 Deepwater Horizon NRDA Annual Public Meeting took place today. It was the 10th annual meeting since the settlement with BP.

The 2016 Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (PDARP) assessed the injuries to natural resources caused by the oil spill and the types of restoration needed. On April 4, 2016, a federal court in New Orleans entered a historic $20.8 billion Consent Decree between the US, the five Gulf states, and BP, resolving claims for federal civil penalties and natural resource damages related to the spill. From 2017- 2032, under the Consent Decree BP must pay up to $8.8 billion in natural resource damages.

The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (DHNRDA) Trustees have been charged with restoring natural resources across the Gulf. They include DOI, NOAA, EPA, and USDA and the five Gulf states, all of whom are jointly responsible for these funds. Settlement funds address the injuries from the oil spill. More than 300 projects to restore injured Gulf resources have been approved with an estimated cost to date of $5.38 billion.

Projects are restoring living coastal and marine resources, wetlands, and nearshore habitats. These also have the effect of offering benefits to wildlife, water quality, and recreation. Importantly, the restorations help to mitigate the effects of storm events. Funds have been used to build boat launches, piers, boardwalks, artificial reefs, state park amenities, and educational centers in and around the Gulf.

The Trustees have developed strategic frameworks for birds, marine mammals, oysters, and sea turtles as well as the monitoring and adaptive management manual. Here are some examples.

• Habitat restoration for migratory birds: The target area spans the barrier islands in the Gulf to nesting grounds in the Upper Midwest, Canada, and the Caribbean. An Avian Data Monitoring Portal supports ongoing and future colonial waterbird restoration, management, and monitoring efforts across the Gulf.

• Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline: This completed project constructed over a half mile of breakwaters spanning approximately 3.5 acres and created over 9 acres of vegetated tidal wetland. The new reef, which reduces incoming wave energy and protects the shoreline, is providing habitat for oysters, shrimp, crabs, fish, and birds.
• The Lake Borgne Marsh (LA) Creation: Restoring more than 2,700 acres of marsh along the southern shore of Lake Borgne will take 13 million cubic yards of dredged material from the lake. This vital natural buffer against hurricanes and storms will also strengthen the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS), developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers to protect the Greater New Orleans region.
• Fish and water column invertebrates and sea turtles: Six projects will help restore fish and water column invertebrates, and four projects will help restore sea turtles. These ten projects will be implemented over the next several years.

Notes From The 10th Annual Meeting Webinar

The DWH Trustee Council held its 10th Annual Public Meeting today. The Trustees presented updates on the progress made by the Trustee Council and in each of the seven Restoration Areas and provided an opportunity for public comments.

Of particular interest, in summer 2025 the EPA will implement a pilot project for the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group. The project will focus on monitoring and adaptive management activity, focusing on coastal restoration effects on inshore, nearshore, and offshore ecological conditions.

This is a multi-year, phased activity to plan and develop an approach leveraging the EPA National Coastal Condition Assessment (NCCA) estuarine condition assessment protocols with other existing fisheries population and food web evaluation protocols. The goals of the NCCA’s statistical survey are to address two key questions about the quality of the nation’s coastal waters:

• What percent of the nation’s coastal waters are in good, fair, and poor condition for key indicators of water quality, ecological health, and recreation?
• What is the relative importance of key stressors such as nutrients and contaminated sediments?

As a DWH NRDA Trustee, EPA has a responsibility and key opportunity to work with our state partners on restoration of Gulf natural resources in the wake of the 2010 disaster. Will the Trump administration’s cut to the EPA hurt Deepwater Horizon restoration efforts? Let’s hope not.