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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.
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