In the two months since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, millions of litres of oil have gushed out of BP's well into the water each day, slowly encroaching on the coastline.

A menace to the fragile marshlands, the drilling disaster is also threatening a whole way of life for fishing communities in Louisiana - still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina five years ago.

But this is not all new: Big Oil has a long history in this part of the world.

Fault Lines' Avi Lewis travels to the drill zone, and learns about the erosion in the wetlands from industry canals and pipelines, the health problems blamed on contaminated air and water from petrochemical refineries.

On the Gulf Coast, it has long been widely accepted that the fishing and oil industries can co-exist. In the wake of the Deepwater disaster, the more destructive (and more lucrative) industry may be the last one standing.

This episode of Fault Lines can be seen from Thursday, June 17, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600; Friday: 0030, 0830; Saturday: 2230; Sunday: 0630; 2130; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 0530, 1230; Wednesday: 0300; Thursday: 0030.