BP Oil Spill - Chemical Dispersants

What the hell are Chemical Dispersants and why are we dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of them into our ocean? The Chemical Dispersants being used to battle the BP oil spill come from a company called Nalco Energy Services. The EPA gave BP approval to spray two products into the Gulf, Corexit 9500 and an older version called Corexit EC9527A. No official toxicity studies have been done on these products and they are known to contain hazardous chemicals such as 2-Butoxyethanol, Organic sulfuric acid salt and Propylene glycol, while some of the contents of this chemical cocktail remain “confidential.”

Chemical Dispersants are not environmentally neutral and do not “clean up” the oil. Basically what they do is break the crude oil up so that it can “mix” with the water. This increases the surface area available for underwater microorganisms to break down the oil. However, the chemicals being used in Corexit also need time to biodegrade. The Gulf of Mexico has essentially been turned into a giant science experiment and testing ground for a toxic chemical cocktail. It’s been reported that several clean up workers may have fallen ill due to their exposure to Corexit but BP claims that it is not as harmful as it is thought to be. The EPA has asked BP to switch to another Chemical Dispersant but BP decided they would instead stop using it on the surface and only use it underwater.

One thing we do know is that these Chemical Dispersants give the appearance of reduce oil content on the surface of the water by breaking up the crude oil and mixing it with the water. Whether or not they are needed or even safe to use are questions we do not yet know the answers to. Perhaps BP is just trying to conceal the degree of damage they have inflicted on the Gulf. When it comes time to pay for what they have done, they will definitely benefit from making things appear like they aren’t as bad as they really are. Or maybe this is our only real option for battling an oil spill and we still haven’t figured out another way to really clean up after ourselves when we make a mess of this magnitude. My view is if we can’t clean up after ourselves we shouldn’t be putting ourselves in the position to make that mess in the first place.