By Joe Wright
The fallout continues from the Deepwater Horizon explosion that directly killed 11 workers and ravaged the food chain and the environment more than 5 years ago.
Since then we have seen little accountability, despite a nominal fine against BP for its role in unleashing 4 million barrels of oil (approx. 200 million gallons). In fact, the EPA lifted a ban which subsequently resulted in BP being awarded $40 Billion in new contracts, essentially erasing all that was “lost” by BP from their criminality.
Running in tandem with BP’s negligence was the use of Corexit 9500 oil dispersant (owned by Nalco, a Goldman Sachs subsidiary) as a supposed means to drastically minimize the impact. Contrary to that assertion, evidence continues to mount that it did the exact opposite.
Early on, reports began to surface of health anomalies that many believed were attributable to the spraying of the chemical dispersant. Corexit was not only sprayed over the water, but over houses as well. One family documented how all of them became sickened, and afterward tested very high for chemical poisoning. A crew of activists called Project Gulf Impact were on the scene to expose what was taking place, and similarly reported sickness to their own crew, as well as suppression of their media coverage.
In total, upwards of 2 million gallons of dispersant was sprayed, affecting a wide swath of the Gulf’s ecology, its human residents, as well as the 48,000 workers charged with the cleanup. Even at the time, outspoken residents like Kindra Arnesen suspected that not only was the chemical poisoning anyone in its path, but that it was ineffective in getting rid of the oil.
It has been exposed in years since that, yes, Corexit absolutely was toxic, and the EPA charged with protecting citizens knowingly misrepresented that toxicity. And now it is being suggested in a new study that, no, Corexit was not an effective means of eliminating the oil spill. Even worse, new results indicate that “half the oil can’t be accounted for.” Emphasis added…
The oil appeared to dissipate, but scientists and government officials didn’t really monitor the microbes and chemicals, said University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha Joye.
So Joye and colleagues recreated the application in a lab, with the dispersant, BP oil and water from the gulf, and found that it didn’t help the microbes at all and even hurt one key oil-munching bug, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The dispersants did a great job in that they got the oil off the surface,” Joye said. “What you see is the dispersants didn’t ramp up biodegradation.”
In fact, she found the oil with no dispersant “degraded a heckuva lot faster than the oil with dispersants,” Joye said.
This would appear to indicate that the dispersant did a great job of hiding the oil slick, but did nothing to lessen its danger; just the opposite as it retarded a key beneficial bacteria, disabling it from its natural eating pattern.
Scientists are wondering, as anyone would, where is the oil then?
Joye guesses it might still be on the floor of the gulf.
Outside scientists Jeff Chanton and Ian MacDonald of Florida State University said the study seemed to make sense. Chanton called the results important and surprising.
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Or perhaps not surprising. Back in 2014 the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) found 1250 pounds of submerged oil mats near Pensacola beaches, despite the area having been surveyed 9 times since 2010.
Even as the evidence pours in every time there is a willingness to even give a cursory look, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said they will use this new information to “evaluate to determine how well dispersants work in the future …”
In the future?
Joe Wright’s articles can be found at ActivistPost.com