Ecosystem in Peril After Gulf Oil Spill

Published on Friday, May 14, 2010 by Inter Press Service

Ecosystem in Peril After Gulf Oil Spill

by Matthew Cardinale

ATLANTA, Georgia - With engineers giving a best-case scenario of "weeks" before the catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is sealed, some scientists are warning that the region's ecosystem could face major long-term damage.

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Riki Ott, a toxicologist who wrote two books about the Exxon Valdez spill, says she believes the scenario is far worse than officials are presenting to the public.

"BP is trying to say we're winning because oil has not hit the shoreline. That is far from the truth: we're losing. So much toxic oil is spilling every day, they're hammering it with dispersants, another toxic chemical," she said.

BP says it has used about 400,000 gallons of dispersant, which breaks down the oil, and has another 805,000 gallons on order.

"This dispersed oil is extremely toxic to young life forms," Ott told IPS. "BP is saying that it's not that toxic, not that much of a problem. That is extremely misleading because the only toxicity data they douse adult shrimp and minnows in static beakers of dispersant or oil for 48 or 96 hours, and count how many die or live."

"But young life forms are a lot more sensitive to toxic chemicals than adults," she said. "What we have in the open Gulf is a continuous exposure. The oil goes a mile down...It's in the whole water column."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/14-8

He does amazing research.

I wish it wasn't for such a sad horrific topic.

K&R

I want then to stop using this dispersant -- it's doing as much damage as the oil.