This week in #dwhstories, I provide a very broad overview of some of the economic aspects of the spill for further reading. One thing became crystal clear during the #oilspill: the health of our economy is intrinsically linked to the health of our environment.
One of the first economic dominoes to call during the #dwhspill was the #gulfcoast fishing industry. The Gulf region produces the most seafood in the continental United States. preview.tinyurl.com/vb6moqm
Unsurprisingly, the spill led to closures of Gulf waters for most of the summer of 2010. In June of that year, approximately 88,522 square miles of federal waters were closed to fishing, totaling almost 40% of all federal waters in the Gulf. tinyurl.com/rh53pgh 
As the closures wore on, myriad industries were impacted, & not just businesses directly tied to Gulf natural resources. When your economy relies on nature-based industry (tourism or fishing for example), there are countless other businesses whose success is linked to those.
One interesting example of the rippling economic impact of the spill was found in New Orleans. Owners of the Mimosa Dancing Girls club filed a claim in 2010, claiming that the fishermen who typically frequented the club could no longer afford to do so. tinyurl.com/tjgm9kr
In June of 2010, the Obama administration and BP came to an agreement to establish a $20 billion trust fund to pay out loss claims from individuals and businesses as well as local and state governments.
The Gulf Coast Claims Facility was set up to process the claims, and Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the claims process for the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, was appointed to run the claims process. tinyurl.com/t54hgcr
Between 2010-2012, when the claims process was transferred to a court-supervised process, the Claims Facility processed over 1 million claims and paid out more than $6.2 billion to 220,000 individual and business claimants, according to a 2012 DOJ report. preview.tinyurl.com/v4tao66
BP created the Vessels of Opportunity (VOO) program to hire out of work fishing crews to help with clean up. Both the claims & VOO process were created in good faith, but their perceived uneven application of compensation exacerbated competition and corrosiveness in communities.
The term “spillionaire” emerged to describe people who suddenly had a new truck or a new boat as a result of the VOO or claims process.
preview.tinyurl.com/tvowxce
preview.tinyurl.com/tvowxce
Were you impacted by the #dwhoilspill? I would love to hear your story. Next week we will dive into some of the social and mental health impacts people experienced, before turning our attention to ecosystem impacts.
