A BP
engineer intentionally deleted more than 300 text messages that said the
company's efforts to control the Gulf of Mexico oil spill were failing, and
that the amount of oil leaking was far more than what the company reported, the
Justice Department said Tuesday.
In the
first criminal charges related to the deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon
rig in April 2010, the Justice Department arrested Kurt Mix and charged him
with two counts of obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying evidence
sought by federal authorities, officials announced in a statement.
The charges
came a day before a federal judge in New Orleans was to consider preliminary
approval of a $7.8 billion settlement between BP and a committee of plaintiffs
in a civil case. Shrimp processors have raised objections, saying the
settlement does not adequately compensate them.
Having an
accurate flow-rate estimate is key to determining how much in civil and
criminal penalties BP and the other companies drilling the Macondo will face
under the Clean Water Act.
In an
emailed statement, BP said it would not comment on the case but is cooperating
with the Justice Department and other investigations into the oil spill.
"BP had clear policies requiring preservation of evidence in this case and
has undertaken substantial and ongoing efforts to preserve evidence," the
statement said.
Mix, 50, of
Katy, Texas, appeared before a judge in Houston and was released on $100,000
bail. Mix, who no longer works for BP, said very little during the hearing,
answering routine questions about the charges. His attorney declined comment
after the hearing. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine
of up to $250,000 on each count.
The
engineer deleted more than 200 messages sent to a BP supervisor from his iPhone
in October 2010 containing information about how much oil was spilling out -
and then erased 100 more the following year after receiving numerous legal
notices to preserve the information, the Justice Department said in a news
release.
On the
first day BP began to use the "top kill" method to plug the leaking
well, Katy estimated in a text to his supervisor that 15,000 barrels of oil per
day were spilling - an amount greater than what BP said the method could likely
handle. The "top kill" method involved pumping heavy mud into the
blown-out well head to cap it, and it was one of many unsuccessful attempts to
plug the well. The well was ultimately capped July 15, 2010.
The BP-leased
rig Deepwater Horizon exploded the night of April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers
and setting off the nation's worst offshore oil disaster. More than 200 million
gallons of crude oil flowed out of the well off the Louisiana coast before it
was stopped.
As the
spill grew into weeks and months, and soiled fishing grounds, beaches and
coastal marshes, independent scientists questioned the official flow rates.
Academics, environmentalists and federal investigators accused the Obama
administration of downplaying scientific findings and misrepresenting data as
well as misconstruing the opinions of experts it solicited.
A deepwater
drilling moratorium was also put in place, a painful move for the industry and
the Gulf states that rely on drilling for jobs and tax revenue.
Meanwhile,
BP chief executive Tony Hayward was forced to step down after making a series
of gaffes related to the spill. BP's attempts to create an environmentally
friendly image were crushed, and independent gas station owners with BP-branded
stations lost business from upset customers.
Recently,
scientists said they have found fish in the Gulf with open sores, parasitic
infections and chewed-up fins - injuries they suspect are from the effects of
the petroleum. The evidence is not conclusive, but it could mean that the
environmental damage to the Gulf from the BP disaster is still unfolding and
the picture isn't as rosy as it might have seemed just a year ago.
Two years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists are finding trouble in the oiled Gulf of Mexico: Fish with lesions and evidence of contamination. But no link has been found between the sick fish and the oil spill. (April 18)
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