Oiled

Videos MSNBC

In this 1969 picture, workers used straw to absorb oil from the beach at Santa Barbara Harbor. The blowout at a Union Oil platform which helped lead to the Clean Water Act was never controlled by human response... The oil pocket bled out completely... Sending its entire contents into the Pacific.

There were two big oil spills that year that are still shaping public and scientific perspectives on oil and the environment, partly due to their iconic locations: the other was in Buzzards Bay at Cape Cod, MA.

Scientists from UCSB & Woods Hole who witnessed their local events compare and contrast the immediate and lasting impacts.

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 6/30/10, Host: Deborah Becker.