Image via NWFblogs on Flickr

Scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting that “a major component of the dispersant [used in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is persisting] within an oil and gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded three months after it was applied.” More via Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones:

In the weeks after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP—with the consent of federal regulators—spread 1.8 million gallons of dispersants on the surface of the Gulf and at the wellhead a mile below. Using dispersants in this volume and at this depth was unprecedented, and there wasn’t a great understanding of the implications. Now a new report indicates that some of the chemical components of the dispersants might remain in the Gulf for months.

And from the New York Times:

Traces of the dispersant compound were found in September more than 150 miles from the well site, researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said in their report.

The levels found in ocean samples were extremely low, however — just a few parts per billion — and past studies suggest that such concentrations do not pose a significant threat to sea life, said Elizabeth B. Kujawinski, lead author of the study, which will appear in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

“Everything that has been done in the past would suggest that the concentrations that were down there were not toxic,” Dr. Kujawinski said in an interview.

—
Photo source for attribution. The author or licensor of this image does not endorse my work or me and their image is protected under an attribution license.