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Introduction to Special Section of HERA on Oil Spill Response Risk Communication

With its unprecedented scale and impacts (White et al . 2012), the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been described as setting a new standard for environmental catastrophe (Kerr et al. 2010). April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded and sank, killing 11 people. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked from the deep sea Macondo wellhead into the Gulf before the well was capped 87 days later. During the spill a 22-mile long oil plume was reported, formed of mixtures of oil, dispersant, and seawater. Experience with stakeholders and the public on oil spills, and dispersant issues, from 1980 through the Deepwater Horizon spill has shown that communicating about risks from the oil and from response options, especially those associated with dispersants, has long been and remains a problem across the country (Walker 2010, 2011a,b,c, 2012; Walker et al . 1997, 1999, 2001a,b; Bostrom et al. 1995, 1997; Pavia and Smith 1984; Pavia and Onstad 1985; Pond et al. 1997). Dispersant use has been permitted in the United States since 1963 (USDOI 1963) under conditions specified in the U.S. National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, often referred to as the NCP (USEPA 1994). Since 2009, owners or operators of covered oil facilities ensure they are capable of conducting dispersant operations within those areas (USCG 2009). This requirement to ensure dispersants could be used creates a dynamic tension during spills, due to the challenges associated with communicating about risks associated with their use. The five articles in this special section of HERA represent complementary pieces of a collaborative social science and natural science research project designed to address public, media, and political concerns and develop preparedness recommendations and response tools to facilitate well-balanced decisions under the uncertain conditions of risk that spills represent. Natural science communications can benefit from data-driven social science research (Fischhoff 2013) and collaborations between the two can lead to new breakthroughs (Schaal 2012). In order of presentation, the first of these articles (Bostrom et al., 2015a) focuses on mental models risk communication research using a novel survey approach to assess public thinking about oil spills and oil spill response. This part of the project