Tell EPA to do the necessary testing and set toxicity standards to ensure that dispersants are used only if they are demonstrated to be safe for waters and applied in safe quantities.
Tell EPA to do the necessary testing and set toxicity standards to ensure that dispersants are used only if they are demonstrated to be safe for waters and applied in safe quantities.
Science is turning up the devastating impacts of the use of dispersants during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
EPA and the Coast Guard allowed the use of 1.84 million gallons of the dispersants Corexit 9500 and 9527 during the Deepwater Horizon response. Research by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology now shows that while Corexit 9500 has toxicity similar to the toxicity of oil, the combination of Corexit 9500 and oil increased toxicity by 52-fold.
Shouldn’t EPA have known this before it allowed the dumping of unprecedented amounts of this dispersant into the Gulf?
Researchers at the University of South Florida are discovering massive die-offs of microorganisms at the base of the marine food chain where the Deepwater Horizon oil, dispersed by Corexit, sank into the water column and formed a plume on the floor of the ocean.
What more should the public and EPA know before the next oil disaster leads to calls for dispersants?
Tell EPA it must set a toxicity standard and do the research necessary to determine whether any dispersants are safe to use.
Call EPA Now
EPA Acting Administrator
Bob Perciasepe: 202-564-4700
Assistant Administrator
Mathy Stanislaus: 202-566-0200
Office of Emergency Management Director
Lawrence Stanton: 202-564-2092
Office of Emergency Management Deputy Director
Dana Tulis: 202-564-7938
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