Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

[Sally Furniss]

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jun 17, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- As government responders and Gulf Coast relief teams continue their efforts to clean up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, further federal testing has concluded that the use of the COREXIT dispersant remains a safe, effective, and critical tool in mitigating additional damage in the Gulf.

The government has established several systems and methods for detecting any health impact of the oil spill and dispersant use, such as facilitating mobile health units to measure and assess exposure. According to testimony given this week at two Congressional committees by Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "To date none of these systems has documented any evidence of an increase in conditions that could be related to oil or dispersant exposure."

The most recent data posted on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website (www.epa.gov ) shows that the current testing for dispersants has turned up no evidence of residual dispersant chemicals at the Louisiana shore, stating, "Surface water results collected on May 22 and 23, 2010, at 10 stations along the coast of Louisiana were measured for two of the chemicals associated with dispersants, but did not detect either one."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fe...and-effective-2010-06-17?reflink=MW_news_stmp

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

Blog by David Biello in Scientific American, last week,EPA Dispersant Tests Show Limited Toxicity But Questions Remain points out the EPA's results (showing slight toxicity or practical nontoxicity of the tested dispersants) suggest the presence of several research design as well as data collection and analysis flaws.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=epa-dispersant-tests-show-limited-t-2010-07-01

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

More of this topic in:
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=361919#post361919

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

Marine toxicologist, Dr. Susan D. Shaw on effects of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico?s ecosystems.

Interview by David Guggenheim (One Planet One Ocean)

Shaw is director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute in Maine, and discusses the use of dispersants including need for access to affected areas to collect data.

http://webtalkradio.net/shows/the-ocean-doctor/

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

EPA Releases Second Phase of Toxicity Testing Data for Eight Oil Dispersants

WASHINGTON ?The US Environmental Protection Agency today released peer reviewed results from the second phase of its independent toxicity testing on mixtures of eight oil dispersants with Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil. EPA conducted the tests as part of an effort to ensure that EPA decisions remain grounded in the best available science and data.

EPA?s results indicate that the eight dispersants tested have similar toxicities to one another when mixed with Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil. These results confirm that the dispersant used in response to the oil spill in the gulf, Corexit 9500A, when mixed with oil, is generally no more or less toxic than mixtures with the other available alternatives. The results also indicate that dispersant-oil mixtures are generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone.

?EPA has committed to following the science at every stage of this response - that?s why we required BP to launch a rigorous dispersant monitoring program, why we directed BP to analyze potential alternatives and why EPA undertook this independent analysis of dispersant products,? said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. ?We have said all along that the use of dispersant presents environmental tradeoffs, which is why we took steps to ensure other response efforts were prioritized above dispersant use and to dramatically cut dispersant use. Dispersant use virtually ended when the cap was placed on the well and its use dropped 72 percent from peak volumes following the joint EPA-U.S. Coast Guard directive to BP in late May.?

The standard acute toxicity tests were conducted on juvenile shrimp and small fish that are found in the gulf and are commonly used in toxicity testing. The tests were conducted on mixtures of Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil and eight different dispersant products found on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule ? Dispersit SPC 1000, Nokomis 3-F4, Nokomis 3-AA, ZI-400, SAFRON Gold, Sea Brat #4, Corexit 9500 A and JD 2000. The same eight dispersants were used during EPA?s first round of independent toxicity testing.

All eight dispersants were found to be less toxic than the dispersant-oil mixture to both test species. Louisiana Sweet Crude Oil was more toxic to mysid shrimp than the eight dispersants when tested alone. Oil alone had similar toxicity to mysid shrimp as the dispersant-oil mixtures, with exception of the mixture of Nokomis 3-AA and oil, which was found to be more toxic than oil.

While there has been virtually no dispersant use since the well was capped on July 15 ? only 200 gallons total applied on July 19 ? EPA?s environmental monitoring continues.

EPA required rigorous, ongoing monitoring as a condition of authorizing BP?s use of dispersant in the gulf. Dispersants prevent some oil from impacting sensitive areas along the gulf coast. EPA?s position has been that BP should use as little dispersant as necessary and, on May 23, Administrator Jackson and then-federal on-scene coordinator Rear Admiral Mary Landry directed BP to reduce dispersant usage by 75 percent from peak usage. EPA and the Coast Guard formalized that order in a directive to BP on May 26.

Before directing BP to ramp down dispersant use, EPA directed BP to analyze potential alternative dispersants for toxicity and effectiveness. BP reported to EPA that they were unable to find a dispersant that is less toxic than Corexit 9500, the product then in use. Following that, EPA began its own scientific testing of eight dispersant products.

EPA released the first round of data ? on the dispersant products alone ? on June 30. Today?s results represent the second and final stage of the independent acute toxicity tests.

View the toxicity test results: http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/dispersants<o></o>


R263




<o></o>
Note: If a link above doesn't work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.

View all news releases related to emergency response


<!--/RSS_SECTION-->
<hr> CONTACT:

EPA Press Office
press@epa.gov
202-564-6794

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 2, 2010
<table width="227" border="1" bordercolor="#cccccc" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="215" height="90"> <table width="200" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="26">

</td></tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td></tr> <tr> <td height="29"> </td> <td> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
<!-- BLOGLINK --><!-- SHARE_CONTENT --> Sent by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ? 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW ? Washington DC 20460 ? 202-564-4355

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

Disaster, Dispersants & Deception in the Gulf of Mexico

David Guggenheim, The Ocean Doctor on WebTalkRadio.net


August 23, 2010


The Administration claims the ?vast majority? of the oil is ?gone.? But the latest studies and Congressional hearings say otherwise. How safe is Gulf seafood? What does the future hold? The Ocean Doctor continues the work of unspinning the spin. This week?s guest: David Helvarg, president of the Blue Frontier Campaign, author of, ?Saved by the Sea,? leader of the Seaweed Rebellion.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Federal Testing Continues to Prove Use of Dispersant in Gulf Oil Spill is Safe and Effective

National Oil Spill Commission urges research on toxicity of dispersants

Published: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 3:00 PM


EPA Administrator Lisa Perez Jackson, who grew up in New Orleans, came under a lot of criticism for her on-the-fly decision approving the use of dispersants in unprecedented volume and at an unprecedented depth to help break up the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. It was the first-ever subsea application of dispersants, and Louisiana officials were opposed.

It is an issue close to the heart of William Reilly, co-chairman of the National Oil Spill Commission...

..."One of the real surprises here, to me, is having overseen much of the response to Exxon Valdez in 1989 in Prince William Sound, the status of the dispersant question was still unresolved," Reilly said at last week's press conference at which the commission presented its final report to the president, recalling that, "I did not permit dispersants to be used in many parts of the sensitive areas -- around the fish hatcheries, for example, in Prince William Sound, because of fear that getting into the water column would have contaminated the fish."

Full text:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/01/oil_spill_commission_study_tox.html