Settlement is the chance to leave a legacy
The news from the Gulf of Mexico during the spring and summer of 2010 was horrific. Eleven men had been lost in the initial explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a staggering amount of oil was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every day, and no one in charge could predict when it would end, or what the impacts to the Gulf would be.
Six years later, much has changed. Earlier this month, federal district judge Carl Barbier approved a $20.8 billion settlement between BP and the five Gulf states and the Department of Justice for economic and environmental damages. His approval set in motion a 17-year payout of penalties that will begin next year. Combined with earlier criminal and civil settlements from BP and others, more than $16 billion will be available across the Gulf for what could be an unprecedented ecosystem restoration.
The money will come not a moment too soon. A massive report released last fall, summarizing the damage assessment federal and state scientists have been conducting since the spill, concluded that the impacts of the oil were so far-reaching that the event “can best be described as an injury to the entire ecosystem of the northern Gulf of Mexico.”
The harm done to wildlife in particular was more extensive than previously thought. Nearly all of the populations of dolphins and whales in the oil spill area were found to have “demonstrable, quantifiable injuries.” The rare and mysterious Bryde’s whale could die out from the Gulf altogether. The oil killed as many as 167,000 sea turtles. The sustainability of the Gulf’s oyster fisheries is in question. The sheer number of bird deaths could have long-term impacts on the food web. The damage assessment details these and other impacts for more than 700 pages.
But even in the face of these sobering facts, there is reason to be hopeful. We have an opportunity to use the fines and penalties from this disaster to make a real difference for the Gulf.
The restoration needs of the Gulf of Mexico are great. As coastal residents and sportsmen who hunt and fish in this region know too well, valuable coastal wetlands have been dissolving and shorelines eroding for de- cades. Upstream diversions of water and the demands of navigation have greatly altered our coastal estuaries, jeopardizing fisheries and diminishing habitat for millions of migratory birds and waterfowl. Oyster reefs and other important natural infrastructure have declined dramatically across the northern Gulf.
With an investment of this scale, we can set about restoring wetlands, rebuilding oyster reefs, protecting key habitats and recreating a more natural balance between fresh and salt water, all of which will result in a healthier, more productive and more resilient Gulf of Mexico. This money is intended to right the wrongs of the 2010 Gulf oil spill, but that can only be done by tackling underlying environmental problems so that the Gulf ecosystem as a whole is restored.
The key to meeting this challenge is now in the hands of the federal and state and decisionmakers charged with administering the various oil-spill funds. With so many jurisdictions represented — the five Gulf states and a handful of federal agencies — the temptation, and in some ways the path of least resistance, will be to parcel out the money based on some judgment about fairness or about relative political muscle. But an everybodygets-something approach will not restore the Gulf. What will advance restoration is a clear- eyed commitment to putting the health and resiliency of the Gulf first, and, guided by the best available science, to determining which investments will yield the greatest overall benefits.
The mechanisms for distributing these funds are complex, involving many actors and a variety of plans. The RESTORE Council, a federal-state body overseeing distribution of Clean Water Act penalties, must update its statutorily required Gulf-wide Comprehensive Plan to take the final settlement into account, and should complete that task this calendar year. Each state also has a role in distributing a portion of Clean Water Act penalties. Other state-federal bodies will develop plans for using damages paid under the Oil Pollution Act. Still another group of state actors is charged with recommending projects for the fund created with BP’s criminal settlement.
It would be easy for officials to work in their silos and interpret their various charges narrowly and parochially. But if we want to see the Gulf of Mexico truly restored — full of fish, turtles, dolphins and birds — our leaders will have to communicate with one other, work together and move forward with intention and vision.
The settlement Judge Barbier approved this month, almost six years to the day from the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, presents our leaders with an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for the Gulf of Mexico. On behalf of its people, its wildlife and its sheer natural beauty and abundance, they should seize it. O’Mara is the president and CEO of the National Wildlife