Don't Repeat BP's Failed Oil Disaster Response!
- by: Earthjustice
- recipient: Shaun Donovan and
the Office of Management and Budget
Since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, BP and federal agencies have claimed that much of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico simply "disappeared." But recently researchers discovered a massive, oily "bathtub ring" the size of Rhode Island on the Gulf's deep ocean floor.
It's now clear that the federal oil spill response was poorly planned, haphazard, and largely ineffective. This discovery highlights the alarming fact that the EPA still has not issued stronger protections to make sure that oil spill response techniques—such as the use of potentially toxic chemical dispersants despite lack of knowledge about their health and safety effects—are safer and more effective.
We have a chance to make sure this outrageous failure isn't repeated. While the EPA has proposed stronger protections for chemical dispersants, it is still waiting for the Office of Management and Budget to move forward.
Let's end the wait and ensure that companies like BP can't just dump toxic and unknown chemicals on oil spill disasters and call it a day.
Tell the Office of Management and Budget to propose new safeguards for toxic dispersants now.
Dear Mr. Shaun Donovan,
I care about the toxicity of chemicals released into our oceans, such as those used in the BP oil spill. The chemicals we use to respond to these oil spills should not make "cleanups" even more harmful to the environment than the actual spills. To better inform future responses, we must sufficiently test and understand the effectiveness and toxicity of the chemicals used to disperse or treat these spills. And information about the dispersants -- including their chemical ingredients -- shouldn't be secret. The recent discovery of a 1,235-square-mile "bathtub ring" on the Gulf's floor proves we have a lot to learn.
[Your comment will be added here]
Without reforms to the current flawed system, our coastal communities face the threat of another chaotic and uninformed response when the next oil spill catastrophe hits. A long-overdue rule that would update these protection standards currently sits before the Office of Management and Budget. Please do whatever it takes to publish this proposed rule by the projected December date now appearing on EPA's website and finalize the strongest protections possible -- before dispersants are again used without adequate information!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
