The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Then and Now, in One Chart
It can seem as if as much ink as oil has been spilled over the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe since the Macondo well blew on April 20, 2010. The chart below cuts through never-ending news coverage to give you the key facts and figures about the United States’ largest oil spill. Then and now.
As we learned from the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, the consequences of massive oil spills can reverberate through local environments and economies for decades. So can the litigation. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the oil tanker running aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and legal disputes continue to this day.
The same will likely be true for Deepwater Horizon. Seafaring communities like Bayou La Batre in Alabama continue to struggle to recover from the spill, as do the oil rig workers who survived the explosion. (Both are featured in The Great Invisible, a documentary on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that premiered on Oct. 29 and was produced by Participant Media, TakePart's parent company.)
Related stories on TakePart:
• A Southern Town Struggles to Survive Four Years After the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
• Scientists Find Where 84 Million Gallons of Oil From the Deepwater Horizon Disaster Went
• The Battle to Control the Story—and Science—of the Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe
Original article from TakePart