Cleanup Efforts
Just days after the initial fire and explosion, underwater robots
were used to activate a blowout preventer on the bottom of the ocean. After the blowout preventer failed and the valves could not
be sealed, a containment chamber was attempted. The containment dome failed following an icy slush of gas and water.
Next, BP tried a "top kill" in which heavy fluids two times more dense than water were pumped into the blowout preventer in an attempt to plug the well. However, the pressure of the escaping oil and gas was simply too powerful to overcome.
After the top kill failed, BP announced they would stop trying to plug the well. Robots were used to cut off a portion of the pipes that oil was leaking through, so that a new cap would be able to fit better and also pumped antifreeze into the pipe in an attempt to keep ice, which had thwarted previous efforts, from forming. A cap was finally lowered into place and BP began closing vents to minimize pressure that could lift off the cap. A final, tighter cap was lowered onto the well in mid-July, finally stopping the flow of oil.
Cleanup efforts included enlisting many volunteers to wash birds and shovel oil off of the beaches. Fishermen, left unemployed by the unsafe conditions resulting from the spill, were hired to assist with cleanup. Booms were used to contain large puddles of oil, with skimmers attempting to siphon off the floating oil and separate it for later use.
Government Response
The government's response was initially slow, with the administration failing to fully inform the public of its own worst case estimates on the amount of oil leaking into the gulf. Reports from the presidential commission on the spill state that two weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested permission from the white house to make its worst-case models public, but was denied. This meant that the response was slowed, and it was further complicated by a lack of preparation and organization for a disaster of this type. In late May, the White House placed a moratorium on offshore drilling for six months. The moratorium was lifted early due to heavy criticism by those who felt that it only worsened the economic impact of the spill by putting those who had jobs related to the oil rigs out of work. However, the early lift of the ban also came with stricter rules on deepwater drilling in order to avoid further disasters. The new rules raised standards in areas such as blowout preventers, training of workers, well design, safety certification, worker training, and emergency response. In another effort to prevent further disasters, Interior Secratary Ken Salazar has stated that he plans to split up the agency that oversees the oil industry, the Minerals Management Service, into two separate agencies, in an attempt to address criticized weaknesses in federal oil regulation.