Louisiana Oystermen Sue over Use of Toxic Dispersant in Gulf

Friday, June 18, 2010

BP’s use of a toxic dispersant to break up oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico will cause worse long-term damage to the ecosystem than had the company allowed the spill to reach coastal shorelines, contends a group of oystermen suing the petroleum corporation.

 
In addition to suing BP, the plaintiffs are going after Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9500, which is said to be four times more toxic than oil, according to the lawsuit. The oystermen say the dumping of more than one million gallons of dispersant into the ocean will permanently alter the seabed and food chain in the gulf. They add that the chemical was utilized “in an attempt to lessen the financial burden of BP and to lessen the public reaction to the oil spill by forcing the oil to the bottom of the Gulf and thereby obviating the need for shoreline cleanup.”

Officials in Louisiana complained in May that they were left out of the decision-making by BP and the federal government to use Corexit, which has been banned in the United Kingdom since 1998, when it was found to be harmful to the food chain.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Oystermen Say BP Made Poison 'A Permanent Part of the Seabed' (by Sabrina Canfield, Courthouse News Service)
Scott Parker et al. v. Nalco and BP (U.S. District Court, Eastern Louisiana) (pdf)

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