BP oil spill: ecosystems, not Manatee, still imperiled

Even after five years, the devastating BP oil spill from a well blowout deep in the Gulf of Mexico continues to haunt stakeholders. Even after the British energy giant spent more than $30 billion in cleanup costs, legal damages and other expenses, the environmental impact cannot be fully determined.

Eleven workers lost their lives in the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and more than 200 million gallons of oil spewed into the gulf from more than a mile below the surface over 87 days.

Then offshore drilling came under intense regulatory safety reforms, procedures too long in the waiting.

The financial cost to BP -- expected to soar to Clean Water Act fines in the neighborhood of $14 billion along with other legal settlement issues -- serves as a solid statement to investors and executives that there are expensive consequences to ignoring safety standards and environmental protections.

During those horrible months of gushing oil, the five gulf states endured global scrutiny from anxious tourism and fishing industries and potential visitors. But places such as Manatee County survived unscathed from the oil.

Manatee came out ahead

Amazingly, though, Manatee County's tourism business not only survived but thrived with a 12 percent increase during the crisis, according to the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Savvy and targeted marketing helped.

Residents in southeastern states who favored Florida's Panhandle came here instead during those rough days of tar balls on the sand there. Apparently, they are still coming back, establishing traditions that could last generations.

While that benefits private industry, Manatee County's environment stands to benefit, too, should $1.75 million for improvements to the Robinson Preserve and other ecosystem restoration monies come our way.

Those funds, from the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast Act of 2012, would help expand and restore Robinson Preserve.

As Charlie Hunsicker, Manatee County's director of parks and natural resources, told Herald reporter Claire Aronson, that money would be spent on restoring "areas that weren't necessarily damaged but available to fuel the next generation of recovery."

One key environmental improvement project would be the expansion of a ditch from Tampa Bay into Palma Sola Bay via Robinson Preserve. That would help flush out the northern portion of Palma Sola Bay, sending what amounts to standing water eventually out into the gulf and putting cleaner water in its place.

While Manatee County survived, the Gulf of Mexico did not. And the long-term environmental impacts of not just oil but harsh chemical dispersants are the subject of ongoing studies of sea life, geology and public health. Fisheries, dolphins, turtles, coral, and all manner of habitat must be monitored well into the future.

Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota is one of the institutions involved in the research along with the University of South Florida's College of Marine Sciences and Eckerd College.

The BP oil spill forced the nation and oil industry to implement valuable changes, from safety and testing to engineering and equipment upgrades.

Government rig oversight and inspections rose dramatically.

But as the country moves toward more offshore drilling -- not only in the Gulf of Mexico but by Atlantic states as the Obama administration recently proposed -- we must remain vigilant about the inherent dangers of this.

The fifth anniversary of the worst environmental catastrophe in the nation's history must be a reminder that we cannot afford to forget the lesson of April 2010.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "BP oil spill: ecosystems, not Manatee, still imperiled."