EPA Discloses List of Chemicals Found in Oil Spill Dispersants

EPA has released a list of 57 elements in all of the dispersants eligible for use in oil spills and recognized the specific ingredients of some of them-especially, Dispersit, Mare Clean, and COREXIT 9500 and COREXIT 9527, which were used in response to the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Earthjustice attorney Marianne Engelman Lado said the revelation was long overdue.

 

“These dispersants were used in enormous quantities, approximately 2 million gallons, exposing workers, community residents, and wildlife to poisonous chemicals, without sufficient information about whether they were adding injury to the already disastrous circumstances,” Lado said.

 

The new chemical dispersant data was disclosed because of a complaint filed in 2010 July on behalf of Florida Wildlife Federation and Gulf Restoration Network, represented by Earthjustice. However, the identity of specific ingredients found in most of the dispersants that are eligible for use in response to oil spills is still withheld.