Official estimates of how much oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster turned out to be well below the mark. Now an advocacy group has filed a complaint of misconduct to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) against the scientist who compiled the estimates, alleging he "lowballed" the numbers after political pressure from the White House, among others.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) alleges that Bill Lehr of NOAA edited his report to stress estimates from a technique called particle image velocimetry, even though three scientists on the team had already concluded that the technique was seriously underestimating the flow.
Their much higher estimates were later confirmed to be roughly correct.
Lehr denies the allegation. "Absolutely nothing was done in any way to change these numbers or fudge any data," he told New Scientist.
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