Worrying level of chemical dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico area

Thad Allen, a retired Coast Guard Administrator, is supervising the works of BP on the oil spill on behalf of the federal government and says that he has been watching the amount of dispersants used to clean up the mess and that he is satisfied with it.

This is a reaction to a congressional subcommittee declaring that the Coast Guard officials allowed BP to use excessive amounts of chemical dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico. After Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on the 20^th of April, causing millions of gallons of crude oil to emerge in the Gulf waters, the chemicals were used to dissolve the oil, and the decision to use chemical dispersants belonged to the federal coordinator in this area, not to BP representatives. Although there is a general federal directive which is prohibiting the use of dispersants, the Coast Guard granted exemptions when necessary. The Environmental Protection Agency, together with the Coast Guard, ordered BP in May to stop the use of chemicals excepting the rare occasions when it was absolutely necessary, as a House subcommittee on energy and environment declared. But Edward J. Markey, the chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, said that BP was allowed to bomb the ocean with the chemicals, although at some point they discovered they were very toxic and shouldn’t have spread them any more. Thad Allen argued that the field commanders analyzed each case, and then decided if the dispersants should be used, only after getting information from the surveillance aircraft about the dimension of the oil patch and if no other method of cleaning was available so that the oil would not get to the beach. There were more than 74 exemptions admitted in 48 days.

These dispersants are a toxic mix of chemicals, oil and gas, whose side effects are not really understood, but BP declares that they have been collaborating with the EPA and the Coast Guard for the management over the use of dispersants ever since the disaster begun and have complied with the EPA requests regarding dispersants. The dispersants are an EPA approved working tool in the oil spills fighting and BP has already started funding research on the long term effects of the spill, including the use of dispersants. Brendan Gilfillan, the EPA spokesman, says that the use of the dispersants has always been a tough decision, since their effects on the environment have always been a delicate issue, and their use in the BP spill was strictly monitored, since BP wanted to use it in unprecedented quantities and in novel ways. By the 24^th of May they have already used 70,000 gallons of dispersants, so EPA ordered BP to stop using them unless absolutely necessary; from then on dispersant use dropped by 72 percent and EPA was involved in every decision of using them since June. Gilfillan declared that EPA believes dispersant use has been an essential tool for minimizing the oil spill impact and has prevented millions of gallons of oil from doing more damage on the Gulf Coast area. Edward J. Markey claims that BP used more than the amount of dispersant approved by the Coast Guard and found contradictions in the reports on how much chemical dispersant was being used. BP says it has used a total of 1.8 million gallons from the beginning of the process.