Oil and natural gas spills from tankers and pipelines in U.S. waters dropped dramatically in the decade spanning 2010-2019, compared to the previous decade, according to a federal report out last week, reports The Associated Press.
The amounts spilled and dumped in wastewater from drilling rigs and production platforms actually rose; however—if the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill isn’t counted—the increase was mainly the result of more work being done offshore, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
“It is evident that regulatory changes, advances in science and technology, and (for the most part) attention to safety would have helped to make North American waters less polluted with oil” without the Deepwater Horizon spill, the report says.
But the BP well blew, killing 11 people and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana over months. Another big contributor during the past decade was the nation’s longest-running oil spill, also off of Louisiana’s coast.
The 497-page report was written by an international committee of academic and industry experts. Read more.
