Kate X Messer
Grand Island, La.: June 18
According to IfItWereMyHome.com, had the BP oil spill happened here – Austin as ground zero – it would have spread north up to Temple and Killeen, south to San Antonio, east to Brenham, and, with an ominous stretching finger, west of Sonora all the way to Iraan. The explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon well on April 20, 2010, resulting in the deaths of 11 workers, injuries to 17 more, and the gush of approximately 200 million gallons of toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico, is the obvious news story of the year. How the mysteriously shrouded cleanup effort shakes out may determine its status as news story of our lifetimes.
