Twelve years after the worst oil spill in human history, a new report by LSU coastal ecologists said fingerprints of the damage from the Deepwater Horizon spill can still be seen. Dr. Ed Overton said most of the chemicals from the spill degraded in the environment and what’s left are small quantities of chemical residues.
“So when they’re left in the environment they mix with the grasses and sediment and become essentially like a small asphalt pad,” Overton said.
He added that most of the land that was impacted has already been lost due to coastal erosion and hurricanes.
“Almost all of the coastline that was impacted by the spill has been eroded away. That land just isn’t there anymore,” Overton said.
The marsh is still littered with fingerprints of contamination, but Overton said most of the environmental damage is gone.
“I think it would be very very difficult to find major environmental damage,” Overton said.
Thirty to forty percent of the spill evaporated and more dissolved in the water and was consumed by marine organisms.
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