Arguably, the question asked most often by Gulf residents on the BP oil spill is, “what about the dispersant?” Is it still out there in the water? What did it do to the oil? Is it in the fish? If so, what will it do to them? What will happen if I eat those fish? Is anyone going to buy our fish? Those are just a few of the ones I’ve heard. There are more.
It was also much on the mind of those attending the Steps Coalition quarterly meeting when the Environmental Protection Agency made a presentation and took questions. I was there to record the exchanges and while it got a little “motivated” for a bit, what’s interesting about the dozen or so minutes of video here is that very little new information on Corexit 9500 was provided.
As covered in the interview with Dr. Mark LaSalle, Corexit contains a proprietary component that the company will not publically divulge. That’s their right under the laws but it is the big wild card in trying to figure out what it is doing in the Gulf. It’s like trying to figure out what water is without knowing anything about hydrogen. Well, that’s over simplifying but you get the idea. It leaves the people, wildlife and environment in the Gulf more than a bit in the lurch. I’m not going to posit what might be right or wrong with this because that’s not up to me. It’s up to those directly involved; BP, the government's Unified Command, Corexit’s manufacturer and the people who live and work here. It’s liable to be settled by lawyers.
Back at the Steps Coalition meeting, this segment was only about one eighth of the overall discussion. All of it was important to those who had their say. Other topics covered were a more nuanced or yielded fewer facts on the spill’s current and near term status. To be honest, some of it might have gone over my head because I’m not local and as such not dialed in to other local issues. This section was selected for this piece because it is the most topical, nearest the lead on TV news and probably of the most interest to the audience beyond this region.
I was hoping to come away from this meeting with more answers and I doubt I was alone with that desire. There appear to be no real answers to the long term questions yet. Just isolated date points. The cynic in me wants to paraphrase Mark Twain on the subject of facts, or in this case, data.
“There are three kinds… lies, damn lies and statistics.”
I guess I've been down here long enough that the frustration is starting to rub off on me.
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