That’s gonna cause a helluva lot of environmental damage. Actually, no, not necessarily.
- One, they're in the open Gulf (unlike the Santa Barbara Channel spill in 1969, where the platforms are located only a few miles from land) where the currents tend to sweep east-west.
- Two, biota in the water attack the oil and break it down, actually feeding on the crude and metabolizing it into CO2 and water. Companies actually have to take care, through regular maintenance programs, that these organisms don't get into wells, storage tanks, and pipelines -- they can eat a lot of production!
- Three, biological activity constantly cleans up the Gulf.
A regional university once calculated that natural seeps on the bottom of the Gulf release the equivalent of an Argonaut or an Amoco Cadiz into the water column annually, and have done so for perhaps 40 or 60 million years; but biological activity cleans it all up, burps, and calls for more.