Ocean science questions ANSWERED!: post 8 - Deepwater Horizon and oil spills

      Q:  What's the truth about oil spills & the dispersant chemicals used to "clean" them up? (several people asked about this)

A:  The truth is similar to Fukushima.  The Deepwater Horizon blowout is one of the worst environmental disasters to take place in the USA – and the biggest oil spill in US waters.  There is a lot of hype though too.  Its horrible and jarring to see images of the extent of the oil – and it was massive – from DWH.  One of the things is:  oil floats.  So most of the material from the spill was cruising for the surface, and still being less dense than water it gets blown to shore very easily.  SO.  The dispersant was a good idea for saving the large, charismatic, and commercially important species, because it binds to the oil particles and makes them sink.  There are far fewer organisms living on the bottom of the deep sea than the coastal zone.  If there were dispersants used in the coastal zones (and shallow areas), that would probably be disastrous because there is so much life there.  But in the open water and deeper sea, closer to the wellhead, it’s a decent option because it gets that oil out of the most productive part of the ocean – the surface layers.  No matter what, the oil is impacting some organisms – it’s a matter of how much and where.  There has been a lot of talk about the dispersants, and I still don’t know the answer – I haven’t been shown anything to prove to me that those chemicals aren’t horribly toxic.  But the issue seems to be that we are continuing to approve new drilling permits for deep sea operations, and BP and the companies responsible are not doing their share to take responsibility for the impact the spill had on the ecosystem.  I’m really interested in studying the impacts to the benthos of the oil spill and dispersants – my guess (and what I’ve read so far) is that the benthic community was drastically altered after the oil spill, although we don’t have conclusive proof yet that its directly because of the oil and dispersants.  So the truth is, more needs to be done to find out the real environmental costs of the oil spill.