TOXIC OIL DISPERSANT being used in Gulf despite better alternative: LINK

[Nothing Without Hope]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants

Toxic Oil Dispersant Used in Gulf Despite Better Alternative

By Brandon Keim May 5, 2010 | 5:18 pm

British Petroleum and government disaster-relief agencies are using a toxic chemical (Corexit 9500) to disperse oil in the Gulf of Mexico, even though a better alternative appears to be available.

(snip)

The decision has been a controversial one. A few scientists think dispersants are mostly useful as public relations strategy, as they make the oil slick invisible, even though oil particles continue to do damage. Others consider Corexit the lesser of two evils: It’s known to be highly toxic, adding to the harm caused by oil, but at least it will concentrate damage at sea, sparing sensitive and highly productive coastal areas. Better to sacrifice the deep sea than the shorelines.

(snip)

Called Dispersit, it’s manufactured by the U.S. Polychemical Corporation and has been approved for use by the Environmental Protection Agency. Both Corexit and Dispersit were tested by the EPA, and according to those results, Corexit was 54.7 percent effective at breaking down crude oil from the Gulf, and Dispersit was 100 percent effective.

Not only did Corexit do a worse job of dispersing oil, but it was three times as lethal to silverfish – used as a benchmark organism in toxicity testing — and more than twice as lethal to shrimp, another benchmark organism and an important part of Gulf fisheries.

(snip)

My comment: follow the money.

[wildbilln864]

1. k&r! nt

[Junkdrawer]

2. Corexit = profit for BP. So it's a no-brainer.

Now, in that past when government regulated such things....

[chill_wind]

3. Thank you for the info and K & R. They are actually using 2 types

of the dispersant according the feds' website.

I posted links to the MSDS docs they made available early this morning (and quickly became hotly irritated with the effort, lol) but here they are:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8276210#top

The data sheets were produced by NALCO.

They have a website. www.nalco.com

Makes you wonder if we'll need a cleanup of the cleanup.

To the GP.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Related post: "Gulf Coast May Be Permanently Changed by Oil Spill"

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-tipping

Gulf Coast May Be Permanently Changed by Oil Spill

By Brandon Keim May 5, 2010 | 1:49 pm

(snip)

But if oil flows continue, plant and animal populations may be pushed to species-level tipping points, their numbers so low that replenishment is impossible. When this happens, food webs change. Some remaining species become more common, and others less. Disruption favors low-level opportunists that rush into newly open niches. Local ecosystems tip. If that keeps happening, an entire region can tip.

This seems to have happened in the northwest Atlantic, where overfishing for cod led to their permanent replacement by crabs and baitfish. In the northwest Mediterranean, a confluence of overfishing, pollution and climate change fueled the reign of algae and jellyfish. There’s no going back from such transformation, at least not at human-relevant timescales. That degree of change is now conceivable across much of the Gulf of Mexico.

“If a perturbation is extensive enough, and lasts long enough, you can shift an ecosystem to an entirely different state,” said John Valentine, senior marine scientist at Alabama’s Dauphin Island Sea Lab. He called ecosystem tipping “the most extreme of possibilities,” but said if the oil flow continues for several months, it could well happen in many areas. “There could be serious consequences for foundation species,” he said.

(snip)

“The system is already becoming degraded,” said University of New Orleans ecologist Denise Reed. It’s too soon to know if local systems will tip, but “oil could push a marsh that’s already hanging by its fingernails over the edge,” she said.

(snip)

So not only were past decisions (like not including the $500,000 safety cutoff ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8273121 ) critically important in determining the effects of the blowout, decisions made daily right now are also critical. And it appears that the choices are not always being based on wise criteria.

[chill_wind]

6. Their record of misconduct is atrocious, and so is

the regulatory record itself.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x533966

They are doing what they've long done:

*PR* damage control is everything.

Who's Flackin' Who?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x534106

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Related DU thread: "AP: Oil may be wreaking havoc deep beneath the Gulf"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8280064

Sounds like using dispersants, let alone toxic ones, may actually worsen the damage. The "dispersed" oil will more readily penetrate the water column while the oil company brags about the oil "going away." Just because we don't see as much floating on the surface does NOT mean that it has "gone away."

Note that the two WIRED threads I posted on above have good links within the text - this isn't visible unless you go to the original articles.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. Kick for visibility n/t

[amborin]

8. K&R

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. One last kick for the night. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Envisat Monitors Oil Spill Proximity to Loop Current - LINK:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505124159.htm

Envisat Monitors Oil Spill Proximity to Loop Current

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2010), Adapted from materials provided by European Space Agency

As fears grow that the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico could soon catch the oil slick and drag it south towards coral reefs in the Florida Keys, scientists are monitoring the situation closely with ESA's Envisat radar data.

By combining surface roughness and current flow information with Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data of the spill, SAR image analysts are able to detect the direction in which the spill boundaries can drift.

(snip)

The fear is that winds could push the oil slick south until it joins the Loop Current, which would carry the oil towards Florida. If that were to happen, the oil could flow into the Gulf Stream and be carried up to the US East Coast.

"As observed, this does not seem to be the case at the moment as no connection between the spill and the intense current presently occurs," said Dr Bertrand Chapron of IFREMER, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. "Thanks to systematic Envisat ASAR planning over this area, close monitoring of the situation is ensured as long as there is some wind to contrast the surface roughness."

(snip)


In this Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) product for 2 May 2010, advanced processing methods have been performed to display ocean surface roughness variations and Doppler-derived ocean surface radial velocities around the oil spill area in the Gulf of Mexico. As visible, the spill still appears relatively confined around its point of origin and is still north of the Loop Current. An intriguing shape is detected in the image that seems to passively follow the flow derived from the Doppler measurements. (Credit: CLS)

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Another DUer has started a GD thread on this article - LINK:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8283586

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. The chemicals used in response to this spill will have profound effects

over huge areas for a long time to come. Why is so little attention being paid to this? The M$M is mostly ignoring this vitally important issue. Even a brief survey of the situation strongly suggests that correct choices are NOT being made, that once again convenience and profit are the guiding factors. Meanwhile, more and more of these toxic chemicals are being ejected into OUR oceans every second.

[otohara]

13. Of Course It Is

Dr Bronner's it ain't.

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. One more kick before it's gone forever.

I mean, this THREAD will be gone. The effects of the oil spill are going to be here for a long, long time.