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New Online Resource Compiles Deepwater Horizon Info from OR&R’s Critical Front Line Work

DECEMBER 9, 2016--The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, and OR&R’s largest natural resource damage assessment settlement .

Our work began immediately after the wellhead blew, and continued through the six-year process of identifying harmed natural resources, quantifying how many were injured, and proposing the best restoration projects to heal the devastated ecosystem.

Access a wealth of NOAA information now online through the icon on the OR&R website.

Noted as, Where to Find OR&R and NOAA Info on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, it compiles many products of our work that include:


  • trajectory maps we interpreted during the spill to advise the U.S. Coast Guard and other responders where the spill would flow and how best to contain it;
  • the Environmental Response Management Application tool for Deepwater that provided Environmental Sensitivity Index maps, ship locations, weather and ocean currents at the time of the spill;
  • the DIVER Explorer tool for Deepwater that contains searchable data such as contaminant chemistry data collected during the response efforts, photographs, telemetry, field observations, instrument data, and results of laboratory analysis on tissue, sediment, oil, and water samples.
  • 47 NOAA publications documenting the environmental impacts of the Deepwater spill. This list is updated routinely with new papers.
  • Results from our team of economists who conducted 42,000 interviews (surveys) that collected information on 28,000 trips to coastal areas in the southeastern U.S. as of part of the Deepwater Horizon “lost recreational use” assessment. This is one of the largest data sets on recreational use to coastal areas ever collected and can serve as the basis for future research.
  • Public use photos and detailed information about restoration projects in each Gulf state.

For more information, contact Kathleen.Goggin@noaa.gov .

Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.

Beach grasses in front of the ocean.
(NOAA)
Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:52pm PST