Overlapping Environmental Disasters Put a Strain on Gulf Communities

commentary

(NOLA.com)

Work crews on boats gather to clean marshland impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Barataria Bay of Louisiana, June 17, 2010.

Work crews on boats gather to clean marshland impacted by oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Barataria Bay of Louisiana, June 17, 2010.

Photo by Lee Celano/Reuters

by Melissa L. Finucane

November 29, 2018

Recent news suggests that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will soon be eclipsed by the millions of barrels of oil leaking from the Taylor Energy platform since 2004. The Coast Guard this week ordered Taylor to contain the mess, or face massive fines. But cleanup alone may not fully mitigate the damage and effects may linger, as they did after the Deepwater Horizon spill.…

The remainder of this commentary is available at nola.com


Melissa L. Finucane is a senior social and behavioral scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on NOLA.com on November 29, 2018. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.