From the earliest moments of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, NOAA has played a lead role in the response and restoration of the Gulf of America. Learn the details of the work we’ve done over the past 15 years—responding to the spill, assessing the damage, developing plans for restoration, and implementing on-the-ground projects—and how our work is continuing today.
The Oil Spill Begins
On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well drilling platform started the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. Every day, for 87 days, the Macondo well released an average of more than 1.5 million gallons of oil. In all, an estimated 134 million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf of America. On July 15, 2010, the “capping stack” was installed, stopping the release of oil.
Responding to the Crisis
NOAA is the lead science agency for responding to coastal oil spills. Our experts were on the scene from the earliest moments of the crisis. We brought decades of experience protecting and restoring our coasts from oil spills. We provided critical information to guide the emergency response, both on-scene and through our headquarters and regional offices.
NOAA’s response to the spill, led by our Office of Response and Restoration, started within hours of the explosion. It continued through 2015—through the well capping, cleanup, and assessment. Our response was unprecedented, involving thousands of staff across the agency to meet the scale of the spill. We used satellite imagery and real-time data on tides and currents to predict and verify oil spill location and movement.
To ensure the safety of fishermen and seafood, our scientists took water and seafood samples. In addition, our experts established a marine mammal and sea turtle group. We deployed NOAA technical experts for wildlife reconnaissance, response, and rescue of sea turtles and marine mammals.
Assessing the Damage
The Oil Pollution Act authorizes certain federal agencies, states, and tribes—collectively known as natural resource trustees—to conduct a natural resource damage assessment. This process focuses on evaluating the impacts of oil spills and other disasters, and planning and carrying out restoration efforts.
NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program—in coordination with other NOAA offices and the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council—led the effort, rapidly mobilizing teams of scientists to assess the impacts of the spill. Over the course of the assessment, experts used field studies, laboratory studies, scientific literature, and model-based approaches to document the quantity and location of oil, the ways in which the spill was affecting natural resources, and the type and amount of restoration required.
Spanning from 2010 through 2015, this ecosystem-scale assessment spanned thousands of square miles of ocean and shoreline. It included more than 20,000 trips to the field to collect data, where more than 100,000 samples were collected for analysis.
Building a Comprehensive Restoration Plan
With the findings from the assessment, NOAA and other Trustees began planning our restoration efforts. In early 2011, we began a scoping effort to identify issues of public concern, hosting public meetings across all the Gulf states to involve the affected public, state and federal agencies, and tribes in the decision-making process.
In February 2016, after a 60 day public comment period where over 6,300 comments were received, the Trustees released the Deepwater Horizon Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan.
In addition to delineating a comprehensive approach to restoration, the plan outlines the structure of how the Trustees operate. It established Trustee Implementation Groups for seven restoration areas: each of the five Gulf states, Open Ocean, and Regionwide. The plan describes the process for each group to develop project-specific restoration plans for their respective area. It also outlines the responsibilities for individual Trustees as they implement and track the progress of their restoration work.
Reaching a Historic Settlement
As NOAA and other Trustees were leading the natural resource damage assessment process, other civil and criminal actions were underway to respond to environmental damages caused by the spill.
This included the 2012 RESTORE Act, which established a fund that receives 80 percent of any Clean Water Act civil and administrative penalties paid by companies responsible for the spill. It also:
- Created the RESTORE Council, composed of the five Gulf states and six federal agencies, including NOAA. Through the Council, NOAA received funding for three programs: the GulfCorps program with restoration teams in each of the Gulf states; the Connecting Coastal Waters initiative to restore more than 22,000 acres of habitat across the Gulf; and the Council’s Monitoring and Assessment Program, supporting science-based decision-making and restoration evaluation.
- Established the NOAA RESTORE Science Program, which funds applied research and monitoring to inform restoration and management in the Gulf.
In 2013, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation launched the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. This fund arose from the criminal plea agreement with BP and Transocean. The Foundation directs the funds to restoration projects benefiting the natural resources that were impacted by the spill. NOAA assists by providing technical input and environmental compliance advice on projects proposed for funding. We also help ensure coordination among all the partners in Gulf restoration.
On April 4, 2016, BP, the United States, and the five Gulf states agreed to a settlement. It resolved claims for federal civil penalties and natural resource damages related to the Deepwater Horizon spill. The $20.8 billion settlement, which included up to $8.8 billion for natural resource damages, was the largest environmental damage settlement in United States history.
Beginning Early Restoration Work
Prior to the settlement, in April 2011, the Trustees announced an agreement under which BP would provide up to $1 billion toward implementation of early restoration projects. This early restoration agreement allowed for some restoration work to begin before a settlement was reached. It allowed for on-the-ground restoration while the Trustees continued with assessment and restoration planning.
The Trustees negotiated and sought public review on a series of early restoration projects with BP. Several NOAA-led projects were approved, including:
- Building protective living shorelines in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama
- Restoring beach, dune, and marsh habitats at Chenier Ronquille Barrier Island
- Improving our capacity to respond to stranded sea turtles, better understand ongoing threats, and engage with fishing communities to reduce harmful interactions with gear
- Engaging pelagic longline fishing communities to voluntarily take a break from fishing, or use alternative gear that reduces incidental bycatch to restore fish like tuna and swordfish
Working Toward a Restored Gulf of America
In the years since the settlement, the NOAA and other Trustees have continued to develop plans and implement on-the-ground projects to restore injured Gulf of America resources. Significant restoration efforts have been completed, and many more are underway.
Through 2024, the Trustees have approved 368 different restoration activities. NOAA has led a significant number of these activities alongside hundreds of partners across the country, spanning work including:
- Creating nearly 1,200 acres of new marsh habitat in coastal Louisiana, one of NOAA and partners’ largest restoration projects to date
- Rebuilding eroding barrier islands in coastal Alabama, protecting fish and bird habitat and strengthening natural defenses from waves and storm surge
- Restoring habitat in some of the deepest reaches of the Gulf—the dim mesophotic zone and sunlight-free deep benthic zone
NOAA’s involvement in Deepwater Horizon restoration work is focused on fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, Gulf sturgeon, marine and coastal habitats, and deep-Gulf ecosystems, with an overarching goal to restore what the public lost from the spill. By restoring natural resources in the Gulf, NOAA helps protect the benefits that communities receive from those resources: fishing and boating, flood protection, quality of life, and more.
Assessing Restoration Progress
Each year, NOAA and other Trustees release a summary of our restoration activities to date. These annual reports include information on planning, project implementation, fund allocations, and expenditures for each Trustee Implementation Group. We also update the public about work happening in each Trustee Implementation Group each year.
In addition to yearly reporting, we conduct a regular, in-depth review every five years of our progress in the Gulf after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In our first comprehensive programmatic review, NOAA and other Trustees provided an in-depth examination of our work through 2020. We are currently conducting our next comprehensive review, which will assess our work through 2025.
NOAA also works with other Trustees to monitor the effects of our restoration work and adapt our activities where needed. We identify data gaps and initiate targeted data collection efforts to help prioritize restoration projects and evaluate restoration outcomes at multiple scales. Restoration outcomes are monitored and evaluated for each individual project. We also assess the cumulative outcomes of all projects for each injured resource and for the Gulf ecosystem as a whole. These monitoring activities also establish baseline data for any future ecosystem injuries in the Gulf.
Monitoring results show that the restoration activities that the Trustees are implementing are making progress towards recovery in the Gulf. Monitoring data and reports are available as part of the project reports posted on the Deepwater Horizon Trustees’ website and through the NOAA Data Integration, Visualization, Exploration, and Reporting (DIVER) database.
Looking Ahead
NOAA’s work restoring the Gulf will continue for many years to come. We will continue to lead the planning, implementation, and monitoring of numerous large restoration projects, evaluate restoration effectiveness, and adapt as needed in order to maximize the benefit to habitats and marine resources and the communities that depend on them. We will also continue to provide detailed updates on our restoration progress and how we’re spending settlement funds.
NOAA is using lessons from the Deepwater Horizon spill and restoration efforts to help us be even better prepared for future oil spills. These lessons, and our continued scientific support, will ensure restoration provides sustained benefits to natural resources and communities in the Gulf.
