How the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Affects Me

I live and work in Baton Rouge, La., at LSU. Since the big explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig at the end of April and the oil spill that followed, our school has been turned virtually upside down. Activity has been non-stop in several departments, including mine.

We have many specialists in the field of wetland restoration, oil spills, oceanography, coastal sciences, biology, wetland ecologists, marine sciences, etc. Our school has been working with local state and federal agencies, as well as British Petroleum (BP) on the on-going conditions related to the oil spill.

We have hosted meetings and symposiums with BP, EPA, federal and local authorities, other scientists from other universities, etc. that have all called for spur of the moment organization. Not only have we had to secure meeting space, but also get agendas and programs ready, in some cases in less than 4 hours. We also have to arrange for catering for these events, which has also been "fun" at such short notice. Luckily, we have some great caterers that have been able to drop everything and meet our deadlines.

One group of scientists has been working on oil spill related activities practically non-stop and has been putting in 12+ hour days. They have been tasked with analyzing water and oil samples from the Gulf of Mexico. This was initially done to find out what kind of oil we were dealing with from the BP Oil Spill. Was it heavy crude like the oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez, or is it a lighter crude oil? The BP oil turned out to be a light crude oil, which meant that it would be easier to disperse it or break it up.

The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill also affected my work. I am in charge of website content management. Our professors and dean have been called upon numerous times each day by local, national and international media outlets. They are giving interviews one after another explaining various aspects of the oil spill and the effects on the environment we can expect here in Louisiana. This led to a request for me to set up a media room with our full size display board serving as a backdrop with LSU and school name and logo on it.

I also found myself buried in press releases and articles containing statements, etc. that our faculty members and dean had participated in. I was tasked with highlighting all of these media clips, audio sound bites, and videos on our website. This was more time consuming than I initially thought it would be as interviews were being given continually. It seemed that the media requests didn't stop and went on to national television appearances for several of our faculty members. These clips were also added to our database.

After two weeks on continually reading oil spill related articles and adding news clips to our website, I started to get a bit weary. My eyes were starting to get blurry each day and I am really dreading each day of more of the same---reading oil spill articles, adding articles and clips to our website and starting the process all over again and again.

It's been a month and a half now and the process is still the same. I'm still reading oil spill articles and putting those that pertain to our faculty members and school on our website. The articles do seem to be slowing down a bit, but are still keeping me busy.

Although this has been an interesting experience to be involved in, I really hope that this oil spill gets plugged quickly now as the coastline, barrier islands and wildlife in Louisiana are really getting hit hard by oil coming ashore.

In the meantime, I will keep plugging away and adding news articles to our website's database. In keeping the humor in my work, we have a few jokes going around the office that pertain to duct tape...I'm sure you get the picture!

To view the news articles posted on our website click here.