In Deep Water

When Deepwater Horizon’s well blew out on April 20, 2010, the resulting explosion claimed eleven lives. Over the next two months, an estimated 200 million gallons of crude oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico, a haven of biodiversity and one of the world’s prime fishing grounds. The resultant oil slick covered 2,500 square miles, killing wildlife and menacing the coastline—and many thousands of jobs—from Texas to the Florida Keys, and beyond.

How and why did this happen? Who was responsible? And what can be done to make sure such a devastating accident never happens again? In Deep Water answers these questions and more. Drawing on the work of the 400 scientists, activists, and researchers at the Natural Resources Defense Council, In Deep Water documents the environmental and human toll of this tragedy—and underscores that our often wasteful over-reliance on oil comes at an ever-greater cost to us and to the planet we inhabit.

About the Authors

Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, also teaches environmental law at Columbia University Law School. Chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office for eight years, he created and led New York City’s environmental prosecution unit. Bob Deans, author of the 2007 book The River Where America Began: A Journey Along the James, was the chief Asia correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other Cox newspapers, and for eight years covered the White House.