INTRODUCTION On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig, leased by BP for extracting oil from its Macondo well, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico resulting in the deaths of 11 rig employees. (1) Soon thereafter, it was discovered that the explosion had caused a leak in the oil well. (2) The well leaked continuously into the Gulf until it was successfully capped 87 days later on July 15, 2010. (3) The total amount of oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon is estimated at 4.9 million barrels, or 205.8 million gallons. (4) By comparison, the size of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989 was officially estimated at around 240,000 barrels, or 10.9 million gallons. (5) Prior to the BP spill, the largest unintentional oil spill in history was the Ixtoc I spill in 1979, during which 138 million gallons were released into the southern Gulf of Mexico. (6) While the amount of oil released into the Gulf is staggering in relation to past oil spills, it is the human cost to the coastal population of 14 million that makes the Deepwater Horizon perhaps the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. (7)
