What the Heck is BP Putting in the Gulf? (Mother Jones)

[kpete]

What the Heck is BP Putting in the Gulf?

— By Kate Sheppard
| Tue May. 4, 2010 6:55 AM PDT

— Photo by Brit_2, via Flickr.

With the remains of the Deepwater Horizon rig still spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day, BP and federal response teams are scrambling for solutions. BP has bought up more than a third of the world's supply of dispersants, or chemical substances used to break up and sink oil to prevent it from hitting land. The problem is, no actually knows what chemicals are in many of these dispersants, or the impacts they may have on marine ecosystems.

Reports Propublica:

*****On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, deploying an estimated 100,000 gallons. Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from making landfall. But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.

........................

My friend Tom Philpott summed up the situatuation quite well:

***** 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 is on hand. And we don't have the right to know what those chemicals are? That's a scandal.

BP is dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of this stuff into the water every day to try to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil its rig is currently hemorrhaging. But might we yet another disaster on hand thanks to the "solution"?

more:
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/05/what-heck-bp-putting-gulf

[Hell Hath No Fury]

1. Pure insanity.

:cry:

[Juneboarder]

2. Yes, Pure Insanity.

:cry:

[Luminous Animal]

3. Who gave BP permission to do this?

[Echo In Light]

4. K/R

[merkins]

5. A dispersal to avoid visual evidence and hide the crime

Just as polluting, if not more since these solvents are no doubt high strength and toxic. Just adding fuck-up on top of fuck-up.

[MilesColtrane]

6. ?

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. I heard it includes a mixture of sodium, chloride, and dihydrogen monoxide.

And to think they're just dumping that stuff straight into the ocean.

[MilesColtrane]

8. Found some brand names:

Tween http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysorbate_80

BP 1100X

Slickgone http://www.dasicinter.com/dasic_disp_prod.htm

The conventional speculation is that these products contain a mixture of surfactants. The goal is to break the oil into small bits and sink it so that it can be eaten by naturally occurring microbes.

Here's a little light reading on toxicity studies:

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/r?dbs+toxline:@term+@rn+39403-84-4+@OR+@mh+%22+BP%201100X+%22+@OR+@na+%22+BP%201100X+%22+@OR+@ab+%22+BP%201100X+%22+@OR+@kw+%22+BP%201100X+%22

[northernlights]

9. the chemical binds with oil molecules on it's nonpolar end

and with water on its polar end. This enables the oil to break into very tiny droplets, which are then dispersed more freely into the seawater. The result will be for the oil droplets and attached chemical to be quickly and very highly diluted. The small oil droplets can then be broken down more quickly by oil-digesting bacteria.

The chemical has adverse health effects *in high concentrations* but will be, along with the oil, very, very diluted in the sea.

Given the choice between certain death by oil and much lower risk of sickness or death by chemical, I'll take the latter.

These dispersants are used in all spills and leaks.

[my2sense]

10. Scary stuff indeed

As usual the public will pay for the deeds of the wealthy with our health and dollars.

[breadandwine]

11. How much does all that dispersant cost? Like maybe less than spending money on SAFETY...

Sounds like some BP executive did some math and decided they could save money on safety procedures by putting the money into dispersants and then it's like,

DRILL BABY DRILL!

If anything goes wrong, just dump some dispersants around!!!!!!!!!

That's like companies that instead of fixing problems they create, instead put their money into ADVERTISING.

[chill_wind]

12. New information-

MSDS docs-

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