WASHINGTON, D.C.–The oil spill that changed Mississippi and the United States forever is still having an effect on the government four years later, and likely will for many more years. Now Mississippi’s Cong. Bennie Thompson, Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, says the U.S. Coast Guard is not able to prove that they implemented 534 recommendations following the Deepwater Horizon spill of April 2010.
A report from the Office of the Inspector General said this week that it was difficult to determine whether the Coast Guard, the “lead Federal agency” in oil spills or water disasters for the U.S., had even implemented 127 changes the agency claimed were complete.
The report can be found here: http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/2014/OIG_14-42_Feb14.pdf
Thompson blamed the Coast Guard itself in a statement:
This report uncovers mismanagement at the Coast Guard as the DHS component has dropped the ball on implementing substantive changes post-Deepwater Horizon. With over 500 recommendations to tackle, the American people expect the Coast Guard to actively track progress and complete these recommendations so history does not repeat itself. Instead it seems that almost four years later, the Coast Guard has completely ignored hundreds of recommendations – all of which aim to prevent, or lessen the impact of future oil spills. I hope the Coast Guard will pursue the recommendations in the after action reports and efficiently track the developments so we can know whether or not we have progressed on this critical issue.
The report also stated that it was unclear whether the Coast Guard had followed recommendation from previous oil spills.
Eleven people died in the Deepwater Horizon spill, including four Mississippians.
