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Published on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 by Greenpeace
You Can Hide, But You Can’t Run: Toxic Dispersants in the Gulf
Now that BP’s jury-rigged contraption to contain its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spew has failed,
the company's only resort is to continue pumping massive amounts of
dispersant into the water near the wellhead, in an attempt to — what
exactly?
The dispersant goes by the trade name "Corexit." It's
supposed to be a pun on the words "corrects it." Marine conservationist
and oil spill expert Rick Steiner says “Corexit” is called “Hidez-It”
by insiders because its purpose is not to correct but deceive.
 |
| Read all the latest news about the oil spill, view pics, and take action to stop the next one. |
One active ingredient in Corexit is 2-butoxyethanol, which in laboratory tests has been shown to reduce fertility, increase embryo deaths and increase birth defects in animals. Animals are the primary marine inhabitants of the Gulf of Mexico.
Another ingredient is propylene glycol, which you may know as anti-freeze or airplane de-icer. It has high biological oxygen demand, or BOD. This means that as it degrades in the water, it removes oxygen via biological processes. The more propylene glycol in the water, the less oxygen for plankton and fish.
In all, Corexit acts like a surfactant, the same thing that’s in your dish or laundry soap. The oil is more attracted to the surfactant than to the water it’s floating in. The oil forms globules and sinks to the bottom. This is a boon for BP, because it creates less of a photogenic oil slick on the surface of the gulf to be filmed by television news crews.
As we’ve seen in Prince William Sound in the two decades since the Exxon Valdez spill, oil that sinks to the bottom tends to be re-suspended in the water column by storms and with the frequency of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, we’ll see BP’s oil belched back up — with damage to the environment — for generations to come.
Why would anyone in their right mind pour chemicals that poison and suffocate fish into an oil spill that already threatens their lives? I think BP executives — in their long and sorry string of explosions, spills and mishaps — have demonstrated clearly that they are not in their right minds.
I’ll hazard a guess, though. The fewer dispersants you use, the more dead, oily birds and turtles you’ll have washing up on shore. The more dispersants you use, the more dead fish you’ll have — some of which will wash up on shore, many of which will sink to the bottom of the gulf and never be seen again. I imagine the PR department at BP prefers dead fish to dead birds and turtles.
If, when the lawsuits come, the plaintiff attorneys show up in court with plastic bags full of dead, oily sea birds, the jury is likely to award a bigger verdict than if the plaintiffs show up with plastic bags full of dead fish. Fish just aren’t as cute as birds. So I imagine the legal department at BP also prefers dead fish to dead birds.
Of course, what do shore birds eat? Fish and shrimp and other marine life. And if you kill a good portion of the marine life, it inevitably follows that the species that depend on that marine life for sustenance will also die. Just make sure they don’t get oily doing it.
Twenty-one years after Exxon’s huge spill, 20 of the 30 most affected wildlife species have not yet recovered.
People ask me: “Is BP doing enough?” My answer is that there is no “enough.” The tools we have to respond to oil spills are orders of magnitude too small to combat the damage they do. We can’t fix oil spills; we can only prevent them. And we can only prevent them by not drilling in the ocean.
© 2010 Greenpeace
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17 Comments so far
Show AllThe End of the World in the Gulf of Mexico,
Brought to you by British Petroleum, Halliburton and TransOcean.
Sounds like a real winner to me, somewhat akin to combatting poison gas by pissing on a handkerchief. Just ignore those naysayers who claim that chlorine reacts with urine to produce more toxic fumes.
Thank you Mark. The truth is the truth. I am a big fan of Greenpeace and when they say there is no "enough," I believe it and agree.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, the word "enough" should apply to the human population of this planet, which is way way way beyond carrying capacity.
Is it possible that the entire gulf could be a dead oily sea within a year? The shore line filled with a thick sludge and oil circulating into the Gulf Stream? Will the oil eventually reach Britain and Spain, then Africa?
I wonder what the world will be like a year from now?
That's an extremely difficult question. The Global Marine Oil Pollution Information Gateway is a reasonably well balanced source of information on "a number of factors [that] will decide the physical, chemical and biological degradation of the oil, as well as the potential environmental damage."
REF: http://oils.gpa.unep.org/facts/fate.htm
Will we even make it to 12/21/12?
I've wondered where the oil went after treated with "dispersants". The oil molecules sure do not disappear. Figured it would be something like this. Go ahead. Poison the Gulf. Just keep it out of sight. No probo-lemmo.
I've heard that propylene glycol is quite sweet and tasty. A 'tiny' sip probably won't even kill you. They used to say that seafood was good for you. Everything is a conspiracy to force us to become vegetarians!
Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda doesn't have anything on these oil executives. Bin Laden could not have dreamed of causing destruction on this scale.
I think we need to adjust our aim in the "war on terror." We can start by detaining accused terrorists, "oil executives, wall street bankers, etc." and send them to Guantanamo. Or do American citizens still get trials and Miranda rights? I can't keep track of the ever elusive Constitution.
Considering that these corporations responsible for the oil spill are all foreign, I think "enemy combatant" could be used to describe them. Yeah, no need for international law or any law at all. The bankers on the other hand are American citizens, well it looks like Senator Leiberman and a few conservatives are taking care of that little loophole. Problem solved.
I mean all of their assets in the US could be seized immediately, their corporate charter revoked and their company given the death penalty. The assets seized could be used to fund the clean-up! All of this money is blood money after all.
Or we could go with plan B, just have congressional hearings where the three stooges perform and the congress makes like they are not amused.
Looks like plan B
oily to (sea)bed.
oily to rise.
A Calgary station last night was suggesting this (the devastation of the BP spill) would be a great opportunity for the oil shale industry in Fort McMurray since they contend that the dirty oil business there has less of an environmental impact.
The entire Athabaska River basin is now in peril while the Boreal forest is being destroyed.
Meanwhile in Saskatchewan there is a push to develop their also mammoth deposits of oil shale in a friendlier way.
In Saskatoon many of the former stucco character homes have been re-clad in plastic with incentive grants from the federal government.
But hey.....the tulips are in bloom here, and that vibrant spring lime green of the early leaves do not chide our growing peril.
Glendon Wayne
It is a scary and daunting prospect to know that this accident(?) has likely heralded the end of life on earth eventually. If we can't learn from this tragedy, then we will continue until we are all destroyed.
Fortunately, Mother Nature has survived much worse, so maybe next time, the thinking creatures inhabiting the planet will be smarter than us.
3 million gallons so far, and this could go on for months; it could go on until the oil in that hole is exhausted. As environmental disasters go this will soon be far bigger than the Exxon Valdez, far bigger than Katrina, far bigger than 9/11, far bigger than Bhopal; if not stopped soon it will be on the order of magnitude of Chernobyl. I agree with cmac that the owners and operators of the negligent companies are equivalent in their crimes to terrorists of the highest order, or enemy combatants (they are the enemy of all humanity and all life on the planet), and should be tried and punished accordingly, their corporate charters revoked, their assets seized and their money used for cleanup. The government regulators who gave these companies a pass and allowed them to skirt reasonable safety backups should be made to wade into the oily water and marshes and clean, clean, clean, every day until it all is gone.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Secret toxic ingredients in the dispersants just like secret toxic ingredients in Halliburton's fracking gas mixtures that contaminate water aquifers and wells.
Show of hands: How many Americans posting here today would get the hell out of this country if they had a decent job waiting in a more social democratic country elsewhere?
I sure as hell would.
be strong keep hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo