Residents post signs along Highway 23, showing their frustration towards BP. By David Munoz/Staff Photographer

The oil has reportedly stopped spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, according to British Petroleum (BP), but the extent of the damage left behind has come to the realization of marine biologists and scientists alike.

"The BP oil spill is one of the largest oil spills in our history, with 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico," said Jindong Wu, a geography professor.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on a drilling rig licensed to BP, the Deepwater Horizon, while drilling in BP's Macondo project located 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana. The oil rig drilled a reported 13,000 feet below the seabed.

The explosion killed 11 workers and the blowout preventer failed. Within two days, the $560 million rig sank and left a five-mile oil slick behind.

Some speculate the explosion was due to the depth at which the drilling took place, said Curtis Plotkin, environmental compliance manager for Cal State Fullerton's Environmental Health and Instructional Safety department.

A week later, President Obama said the United States will "use every available resource (including the military)," according to News.NationalPost.com. He also halted any new drilling until the cause of the explosion was known.

Tony Howard, BP's chief executive, also released a statement saying the company takes full responsibility and will pay for cleanup and every legitimate claim that comes to them.

By May 7, almost three weeks after the initial explosion, the first attempt to stop the leaking oil was made in the form of a "containment dome" which was placed over the well. The dome failed and so did the "top kill" maneuver attempted on May 26 to plug the leaking well.

Meanwhile, three executives argued during congressional hearings over which company was to blame (BP, Tansocean or Halliburton). BP stock in London dropped 17 percent, costing the company $23 billion.

"Drilling at depths greater than one mile is uncharted territory; nothing like this has happened, so different remediation technologies need to be attempted to find a corrective action method that will work," Plotkin said. "At these depths and with the lack of previous technologies in which to build upon, experimenting with capping methods is necessary, and it should be expected that things go wrong until the correct solution is achieved," he added.

July 3 marked the first day of the clean-up process in which a supertanker, a large oil tanker, was transformed into what the media calls a "super skimmer." This "super skimmer" can suck up to 500,000 barrels, equivalent to 21 million gallons, of the oil and seawater every day. According to an article on ChattahBox.com, the super skimmer acts like a whale; it removes the oil and seawater mixture from the ocean surface and then separates through a series of filters and vents, much like the baleen in the jaw of a whale works. This method is experimental, but testing has been successful.

On July 12, BP installed a "capping stack" to seal the oil well and better prevent the well from leaking more oil than the previous failed maneuvers. Valves within the well were then shut off after the U.S. government gave the OK, and on July 14, BP ran a "critical pressure test" to accurately calibrate the amount of pressure within the well.

On July 15, BP announced that the tests determined the oil leak had been successfully sealed. On Aug. 4, BP performed a "static kill" procedure in which mud was pumped into the capped well to push the oil back further below the ocean floor. BP posted a press release Aug. 9 on their website, BP.com, stating the "static kill" was a success and that there has been no more oil spilled in the Gulf since the cap was put in place on July 15.

Though the oil has stopped leaking and the well has been effectively plugged, the cleanup is still ongoing and the long term effects of the spill on the marine life and fishing industry in the Gulf are still unknown.

“I think it’s horrible because they don’t know the effects the oil spill will have on the ocean because they’ve never had an oil spill that has gone this deep in the ocean before," said Nichole Hines, 21, a liberal studies major.

Wu said, with the 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled, extensive damage was made to marine and wildlife habitats.

"The good news is that areas classified as possible oil anomalies with remote sensing imagery has apparently decreased since the well has been capped," Wu said. "However, it is uncertain how much oil plumes are staying under the water surface and the effect on bottom-dwelling plankton that larger marine species depend on."

While scientists are beginning to study the effects on the marine life, the battle in court will be long and the financial restitution substantial.

Matthew Jarvis, assistant professor of political science, said, in an oil spill, a fine is levied, dependant on the amount of gallons of oil spilled which can have a large margin of error.

"BP is on the hook for fines. I can imagine major fights in court. A judge will probably have to look at 10 different scientists' reports," Jarvis said.

Because of the magnitude of this spill, Congress may take action toward government oversight.

"It will be interesting to see if there will be hearings in Congress because of this. The government doesn't directly deal with oil spills; all that government does is have the Coast Guard oversee the cleanup," Jarvis said. "So, it's BP's problem to fix with Coast Guard supervision. Congress may hold hearings to revisit this setup."

In any event, there will not be a court decision any time soon. Many test and multiple opinions must be sought and heard in court before any solid amount of money is paid by BP. The Exxon Valdez spill occurred in 1989, but payments were not made by the company until 2008. The BP oil spill is larger and farther reaching. Although the oil has stopped leaking, the case is far from over.

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