[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5209-5210]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEEPWATER HORIZON TRAGEDY

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, it is 5 in the afternoon. Exactly 5 
years ago, at 5 p.m., the crew of the Deepwater Horizon mobile oil 
drilling unit began what is called a negative pressure test of the 
Macondo prospect oil formation. A cascade of menacing events followed 
the first failed test.
  At around 9:40 that evening, drilling mud began gushing out onto the 
rig. The well had kicked. The crew activated the rig's blowout 
preventer 1 mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, down at the 
bottom of the gulf. Tragically, the blowout preventer failed. At 9:49 
p.m., there was an explosion on the rig floor. The Deepwater Horizon 
rig quickly became an inferno. Eleven men died. Eleven families were 
changed forever.
  As morning came the next day, an oil sheen 2 miles long and a half 
mile wide shone on the surface of the waters of the gulf as the blaze 
on the rig continued. Those images are seared into our collective 
mind's eyes. So the owner of the well, BP, and the owner and operator 
of the rig, Transocean, tried and failed again to close the blowout 
preventer that evening. Then days later, on Earth Day, April 22, at 
10:22 a.m., the rig on the surface of the gulf sank.
  If we can remember, we were first told the sheen that was 2 miles 
long

[[Page 5210]]

and a half mile wide came from the drums of diesel onboard the rig. 
Then later, a revision was made that 1,000 barrels of oil a day were 
leaking from the well a mile below the surface of the gulf. Then that 
was changed to 5,000 barrels of oil per day and then to 25,000 barrels 
of oil a day. But none of those estimates were true. Scientists looking 
at the sheen from aerial observations started to grow very skeptical 
about what BP engineers were telling them.
  On the environment committee, Chairman Boxer and I started to turn up 
the public pressure to get BP to turn over live footage of 1 mile below 
the surface of the gulf, where the oil was escaping. We wanted to see 
how much oil the cameras were showing was escaping from the well. The 
spill was not out of mind; it was out of sight. As it turned out, 
unbelievably, 62,000 barrels of oil a day were gushing into the gulf 
into what is one of our most productive ecosystems on the planet. But 
we would never have gotten that had scientists not been able to make 
their estimates by virtue of the live-streaming video that Senator 
Boxer and I put up on our Web sites so people--unencumbered, around the 
globe--could make their estimates. This is a prime example of why we 
must independently verify what oil companies tell us about a spill.
  As we got into the summer, the prime of the summer beach season, 
especially at our beaches in Florida, that was devastating. Nearly 37 
percent of gulf waters were closed to fishing. BP and its contractors 
had no control of the runaway well. On July 15, in the middle of the 
summer--87 days after the explosion--BP finally stopped the oil flow.
  Today is the anniversary. Our hearts collectively go out to the 
families that lost the 11 men.
  If we don't learn from this experience, shame on us. It will come 
back to haunt us, and in many ways it already has.
  If we start at the bottom of the food chain, there are impacts to the 
gulf environment. Bull minnows, or killifish--little fish about that 
size--root around in the sediment of the bays of Louisiana. In those 
oiled Louisiana marshes, these little killifish are showing grotesquely 
deformed gill tissue. And when the killifish embryos were exposed to 
oil sediment, they showed heart defects, and many failed to hatch.
  Two LSU professors told me shortly after they had done the research 
about a year after the spill that they found that the killifish in 
their reproductive cycle were mutated. They compared them to the 
killifish in the bays that did not have the oil come in, and there was 
a distinct difference between the two.
  As we go up the food chain, the top predators face threats from the 
oil. Scientists have found unusual lung damage, hormone abnormalities, 
and low blood cell counts up the food chain in dolphins that were 
exposed to the oil. And we are not going to know the full extent of the 
impact for years, even decades.
  As a matter of fact, somebody said a few months after the BP spill 
had been contained that there was no more oil in the gulf. There is a 
lot of oil in the gulf. We just can't see it. It is down there a mile 
below the surface. And what are the effects on the health, the future 
health of the gulf? We don't know, but we are going to have to research 
it.
  But even with all we learned back in 2010, to this very day, oil 
infrastructure in the gulf--this is just unbelievable--operated by the 
Taylor Energy Company continues to leak crude oil since one of the 
hurricanes years ago. In 2004, a hurricane caused an underwater 
mudslide that damaged a cluster of oil wells off of Louisiana. Need I 
remind the Senate, June 1 is the beginning of hurricane season. So if 
we are visited by another hurricane, and if it does as it did in 2004, 
11 years ago, having a cluster of Taylor wells that got buried in an 
undersea mudslide from the hurricane--but the wells are still leaking 
11 years later--what is going to happen to other oil structures in the 
gulf if the big one comes?
  According to the Associated Press investigation, the actual flow rate 
of those Taylor wells may be 20 times higher than originally reported. 
We have seen this episode before. I don't think we want to repeat this.
  It is so frightening. I asked the Secretary of Homeland Security and 
the Secretary of the Interior to provide any and all images of the 
Taylor spill. The Congress, in our oversight responsibility, has the 
right to that information. We have to know how much oil is escaping, 
and then we have to figure out how to stop it from underneath the 
undersea mudslide that covered up that cluster of wells.
  In the coming weeks in the Senate commerce committee we are going to 
examine what we have learned in 5 years since the Deepwater Horizon 
explosion. In 2012, our bipartisan RESTORE Act got overwhelming votes 
in both the House and the Senate. The RESTORE Act is a formula with 
which to send the money that ultimately Judge Barbier of the Federal 
district court in New Orleans will decide as a result of the number of 
barrels spilled and the culpability of the company. As a result of 
that, money will flow. It will flow back to the local governments, it 
will flow back to help the economies of the gulf, and it will flow back 
in order to try to protect our environment. There is more to be done. I 
intend to introduce legislation to make sure we prevent, prepare for, 
and effectively respond to the next oil spill.
  As we reflect on the tragic events of April 20, 2010, I hope the 
Senate will be mindful of this tragedy in the gulf, which riveted the 
attention of the Nation, that seemed out of control for 3 months, and 
of which we will have the very infernal consequences for years to come.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). Will the Senator withhold his 
request?
  Mr. NELSON. Of course.

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