May 22 2010

Dispersants: How the US and BP “Hides The Body”

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The dispersants are a massive experiment , and most likely a huge crime has been committed on the environment, in order to cover up the oil spill–which was at least an accident.

The Coast Guard and EPA allowing their use is a criminal act. And the use of even the worst one still goes on despite media reports to the contrary.

BP Still Using Dirty Dispersant in the Gulf

– By Kate Sheppard| Sat May. 22, 2010 10:35 AM PDT

BP is continuing to use a toxic oil dispersant in the Gulf, despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency directed the company to find a less-dangerous chemical to use on the spill. The company said yesterday that it could not identify a better alternative.

The EPA has a list of other approved dispersants that could be used in the Gulf, many of which are less toxic than Corexit. BP has already dumped at least 670,000 gallons of Corexit at the spill site.

Will the EPA force BP to switch dispersants? That remains unclear. On Friday, EPA spokesperson Adora Andy indicated to ABC News that the agency has not outright barred BP from using their brand of choice. “It’s not that Corexit is banned,” she said. “It’s not that they have to stop using it because they’re using it right now. But it’s just that they need to switch over.”

Scientists warning ignored:

“He was lecturing me on my lack of knowledge about the marine environment. I told him we were most concerned about the oil getting in the food web if they sink it with dispersants,” Shipp said. “When we started talking about the sediments and the food web, they turned off. They were all about chemical reactions and that sort of thing. They just kept saying, ‘EPA approved it.'”

Some of the data released by the EPA on Thursday indicates that oxygen levels in the area around the spill were on the threshold of being too low to support life. Subsequent data collected with a different type of instrument indicated that oxygen levels were fine, according to the agency.

The scientists said that when the oil was allowed to come to the surface, many of the most toxic components — hexane, benzene, other volatile gases — were evaporating. But when the oil is trapped underwater through the use of dispersants, those toxic chemicals also are trapped in the water.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/0…

Additionally:

1. Because they move the oil of the surface, where does the oil now end up? And does it all end up in which clumps, or broken down so that animals can more easily ingest it or what?

2. Do dispersants harm the natural oil eating bacteria that saved the Gulf after Ixtop 1 (1979)

In the Ixtoc 1 spill, “not so many dispersants were used,” he said, allowing natural processes to take their course.

Some fundamental questions remain about the volumes of oil that microorganisms can break down in an oil spill. Tunnell said long-term comprehensive studies are rarely carried out after workers finish mopping up crude oil coating beaches..

See here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclat…

3. The toxicity of the dispersants + the oil makes the situation much worse.  Toxic to human life, animal life–people who have working or living been near them are reporting symptoms like sore throats- already.

And yet the only justification for using them is to “hide the body” .

3 comments

  1. in 2 years experts say (well except for the turtles which took like 2 decades).

    But the same experts are saying that with dispersant use, that wouldn’t have occurred.

  2. There are a few reasons for this.  First, transferring the oil from the surface into the water means that its trajectory will be driven more by currents than wind. The Loop Current will pick that oil up, and like a conveyer belt transport it directly to Florida, and perhaps beyond.

    Second, dispersed oil often forms form a mousse-like toxic soup below the surface, which may end up as in Louisiana threatening sensitive shallow water coastal habitats like Florida’s extensive seagrass beds.

    And third, one of the marine treasures of the nation – the coral ecosystems in and around the Florida Keys – are especially vulnerable to this lethal soup. A 2007 study  found that both chemical dispersants and dispersed oil are often much more toxic to corals than oil itself. Dispersants and dispersed oil can result in extensive mortality that manifests itself over months and years.  

    The Florida Keys coral reef tract is the third largest in the world, covering over 2,800 square nautical miles in and around the Florida Keys. These reefs are already under tremendous stress from overfishing, pollution, warming water temperatures and ocean acidification.  According to EPA, we may lose most of the coral reefs in the world by the next century as a result. The very last thing Florida’s reefs need is to get hit by a toxic soup of dispersed oil and chemicals.

    http://switchboard.nrdc.org/bl…

    Now, if they knew this in 2007, why did Obama’s EPA authorize this in 2010?

    Only one reason.

  3. http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…

    Dispersants????

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