"A Decade Later, Gulf Residents Suffer From BP’s Toxic Legacy"

"The people who cleaned up the 200 million-gallon Deepwater Horizon oil spill say they are still dealing with the health and economic fallout."

"Rick DuFour has worked the most dangerous oil cleanup jobs in the Gulf of Mexico. He was there when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 40 miles off southeastern Louisiana 10 years ago, killing 11 men and spewing more than 200 million gallons of Louisiana crude out of its well a mile below the sea. Much of it poured onto the shores of four states; DuFour was one of the first in line to clean it up.

Over three years, DuFour estimates he worked for 18 different companies, cleaning up a toxic mix of oil and chemical dispersants stuck like peanut butter to the bottoms and bows of ships, picking up oily tar balls on beaches and scraping tar mats as long as football fields from areas they sank just offshore.

There wasn’t a cleanup job he didn’t sign up for, working for weeks on end in the blistering 100-degree heat and humidity, sucking in the noxious fumes that permeated the salt air. He saw hundreds of dolphins wash up dead on the barrier islands where he worked, many of them just babies."

Rocky Kistner reports for HuffPost April 19, 2020.

SEE ALSO:

"10 Years After Deepwater Horizon, The U.S. Is Even More At Risk Of A Major Oil Spill" (HuffPost)

"Ten Years After Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Trump Administration Weakens Regulations" (Washington Post)

Editorial: "A Decade After Deepwater Horizon" (New York Times)

"10 Years After BP Spill: Oil Drilled Deeper; Rules Relaxed" (AP)