Pollution
Gulf Coast Water Issues
By: Chelbi Mims
In April 2010, a deepwater horizon rig exploded in The Gulf of Mexico. This explosion has become popularly known as the “BP Oil Spill.”
When the leak was initially reported, The Coast Guard announced, “42,000 gallons of crude oil was leaking from a well 5,000 feet underwater.”
“When the oil spill occurred it was on the brink of summer, tourism was down and sales really suffered at the boutique I worked for. No one really ate seafood anymore because it was so expensive and no one knew if it was safe to eat,” Michelle Pizer, resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, said.
The oil spill affected many residents surrounding the Gulf Coast, wildlife and the economy.
According to Ewell Smith of Louisiana Seafood, Louisiana represents the seafood industry as a whole. The industry
Oil in the Gulf washing ashore. Courtesy of archives.gov
itself is a 2.4 billion dollar industry business to the state of Louisiana.
They are number one in shrimp, oysters and crawfish and number two in blue crabs and finfish in the US. About a third of the domestic seafood from the lower 48 states from the continental US comes from Louisiana.
The BP Oil Spill brought a great amount of attention to pollution in the Gulf Coast but many residents of the Gulf Coast were not aware that pollution in their region was ancient.
“There is natural oil and gas that seeps in The Gulf of Mexico that no one can do anything about, it just comes from the bottom. The problem is not man made it just occurs naturally,” Steven Hamm, Vice Chair of Gulf Coast Environmental Affairs, said.
There is also a dead zone that comes from the Mississippi River and the fisherman fish around the dead zone but each time there is a storm or hurricane the dead zone breaks up.
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