Gulf Oil Spill Anniversary: A Call to Action

By Cindy Brown, The Nature Conservancy

It’s hard to believe that this month marks two years since the Deepwater Horizon unleashed the largest oil spill in our nation’s history in the Gulf of Mexico.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months as I watched the horrific footage of the oil billowing from the ocean floor. On some nights the acrid smell that clotted the air in New Orleans was so bad I was afraid to take my son – then 7 months old – outside.

It has been a difficult two years of recovery, and in some ways, we’re only just beginning. The Nature Conservancy has been part of the Gulf community for nearly 40 years, and we’ve spent the last two working with many partners to focus on what it will take to restore the Gulf and its people – not just from the effects of the oil spill, but from all the decades of degradation that have gone before.

The RESTORE Act is an important part of that recovery. It directs 80 percent of the Clean Water Act civil penalties that could be levied on responsible parties in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill back to the region for long-term restoration and economic development. These civil penalties will be a one-time payment by responsible parties and are not paid for by taxpayers. Without RESTORE, these fines could be directed away from Gulf restoration – which would be yet another tragedy for the region and the people who live there.

Those of us who live in the Gulf understand how vulnerable our communities have become since our wetlands and other coastal habitats have been stripped away. So, to us, focusing restoration on increasing our safety and improving the health of our ecosystems makes good moral and economic sense.

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Ram R.

5:32PM PST on Jan 29, 2013

Thanks for the info

January 29
send a green star

Tom S.

5:11PM PDT on Apr 24, 2012

we have a home on the Gulf Coast of Al. Gulf Shores, folks there is still oil & tar balls coming ashore, not real bad but it is still out there. waiting for the first storm to see what we will have
washing in.