What Lies Beneath: the BP Oil Spill and the Need for New Response Models

The response to the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, the worst oil spill in maritime history, focused on determining the fate and the marine biological effects of the oil spill with little effort on assessing the emotional well-being of people directly harmed by the spill. The mental anguish experienced by the people, many who were still recovering from earlier destruction of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, remains poorly addressed. The extent of the psychological effects is still not fully known arguably because the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) requires no analogous assessment by federal agencies. Many of the challenges relate to the legal requirements and standards imposed under OPA that lead to more focus on environmental than on societal and individual impacts. The academic community has much to contribute to undertake studies to understand the unknowns in both natural and social science realms, yet federal and state governments have difficulty in using academe to its full effect. We posit that a Human Resource Damage Assessment (HRDA) model be incorporated to leave us better prepared to assess damage beyond the natural resource side and to engage academic researchers in the science of disasters, to help people to cope and locate services, and to promote a connective bridge between natural and social scientists, practitioners and agencies for improved mental health and systemic preparation. Implementation of an HRDA model would require substantial legislative changes in OPA.