Vanessa Parks compiles and analyzes data on Gulf Coast communities that explores how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected mental and physical health and how social factors contributed to post-disaster health outcomes.
Patches of marsh grass that had a 90 percent or greater coating of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster suffered dramatic erosion rates during the two years after the 2010 well blowout, according to a new study. These marshes “didn’t recover; they’re now gone, having been converted to mudflats,” one of the lead scientists said.
BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance today announced plans for the implementation of BP’s $500 million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the potential associated impact on the environment and public health.