Stopping the gushing oil.....by dousing the ocean with chemicals (Lose-Lose)

[marmar]

from Grist:



Spray it forward
What are we dumping into the Gulf to ‘fix’ the oil spill?

by Tom Philpott
3 May 2010 1:38 PM


In addition to the indignity of oil oozing into its depths at a rate of at least 5,000 barrels per day, the Gulf of Mexico is now enduring a heavy rain of mystery chemicals.

BP and the U.S. Coast Guard are dumping large amounts of "dispersants" both on the surface and underwater, in a desperate attempt to control the ongoing spill. Dispersants are solvents, not unlike what you use on your dishes, that break oil down into small droplets that sink to the ocean bottom.

How much are they dumping? Lots. According to ProPublica, "BP has already bought up more than a third of the world's supply" of dispersants. On Thursday alone, ProPublica reports, emergency workers dropped 100,000 gallons of the stuff into the Gulf.

And what precisely are they dumping? That's where the mystery come in. "The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws," Propublica reports.

What? Let me get this straight. A huge oil company is pumping massive amounts of oil directly into public waters, imperiling the health of some of the globe's most productive fisheries -- as well as communities around the coast. To try to minimize the effects of the ongoing spill, the company starts dumping chemicals into that same public water. And not just a little -- a third of the global supply. And we don't have the right to know what those chemicals are? That's a scandal.

Propublica did manage to identify one product currently being used, called Corexit, which includes 2-butoxyethanol, a "compound associated with headaches, vomiting and reproductive problems at high doses." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-03-how-risky-is-the-dispersant-strategy-for-addressing-the-gulf-spi/

[Junkdrawer]

1. "The exact makeup of the dispersants is kept secret under competitive trade laws,"

That's fucked up...

[lonestarnot]

2. Solvents.

And don't solvents contain TCE? No not all, dish soap breaks up cooking oil, maybe it's phosphates that I'm thinking of.. I forget. :shrug: Poison shit to fish and other wildlife whatever it is.

[Junkdrawer]

5. BP is scared shitless of pictures of oily beaches....

so they're willing to kill the Gulf's sea life dead, dead, dead to avoid that.

[lonestarnot]

6. Even with that there will still be visible signs of oil.

[BeFree]

3. @^#(&$!

[enough]

4. "Dispersing" it does not stop the gush. (nt)