{"id":725,"date":"2010-06-21T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=725"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:00","slug":"is-bp-complying-with-the-directive-to-reduce-dispersant-use-in-the-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2010\/06\/21\/is-bp-complying-with-the-directive-to-reduce-dispersant-use-in-the-gulf\/","title":{"rendered":"Is BP complying with the Directive to reduce dispersant use in the Gulf?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em><em>, is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>[Note added 6\/22:\u00a0 I have corrected one of the figures below, which was based on a misunderstanding of the EPA\/Coast Guard Directive.\u00a0 Please see <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/2010\/06\/22\/correction-to-my-last-post-clarification-from-epa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this correction<\/a> for the updated information and a statement from EPA.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As of yesterday, BP\u2019s use of dispersants to address the ongoing Deepwater Horizon spill has topped 1.4 million gallons.<\/p>\n<p>On May 26, 2010, EPA and the Coast Guard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/bpspill\/dispersants\/directive-addendum3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issued a Directive to BP<\/a> calling for significant reductions in BP\u2019s use of dispersants.\u00a0 That directive set out three requirements:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eliminate surface application of dispersant except in rare cases where exemptions are requested in writing and granted by the Coast Guard\u2019s Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC).<\/li>\n<li>Limit subsurface application of dispersant to a maximum of 15,000 gallons per day.<\/li>\n<li>Overall goal of reducing dispersant use by 75%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Has BP complied?\u00a0 The short answer is not even close.\u00a0 The details follow.\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>BP\u2019s use of dispersants is tracked and reported daily by the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command <a href=\"http:\/\/www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com\/go\/doctype\/2931\/53339\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on its website<\/a>.\u00a0 The first report of dispersant use was on April 23, three days after the explosion that initiated leakage of oil.\u00a0 Subsurface application of dispersant was approved by EPA and the Coast Guard and initiated on or about May 17.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a graph I compiled from the Unified Command\u2019s daily reports that shows the cumulative amounts of dispersants applied through yesterday at the surface and subsea by BP:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/files\/2010\/06\/dispersant-use-chart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-726\" title=\"dispersant use chart\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/files\/2010\/06\/dispersant-use-chart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"643\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/11\/files\/2010\/06\/dispersant-use-chart.jpg 714w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/11\/files\/2010\/06\/dispersant-use-chart-300x155.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 643px) 100vw, 643px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, is BP complying?\u00a0 Let\u2019s take the requirements one at a time:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eliminate surface application of dispersant except in rare cases where exemptions are requested in writing and granted by the Coast Guard\u2019s Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><strong><em>Clearly, BP has not come close to ceasing surface application of dispersant<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Before the directive date of May 26, BP\u2019s surface application daily average was 20,600 gallons.\u00a0 Since May 26, the daily average has fallen to just under 10,000 gallons, a 52% reduction.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Limit subsurface application of dispersant to a maximum of 15,000 gallons per day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">BP has done somewhat better here, but has <strong><em>exceeded the daily maximum on four occasions since the date of the directive<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On May 28:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20,000 gallons were applied subsurface<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On May 30:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20,000 gallons were applied subsurface<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On June 6:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 33,000 gallons were applied subsurface<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On June 20:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 18,000 gallons were applied subsurface<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Overall goal of reducing dispersant use by 75%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">Before the directive, BP\u2019s total application of dispersant averaged 24,700 gallons per day.\u00a0 Since the directive, that average has fallen only slightly, to 22,600 gallons per day \u2013 <strong><em>a decrease of only 9%<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>[Note added 6\/22:\u00a0 While the figures in the preceding sentence are accurate, they were based on a misunderstanding of the EPA\/Coast Guard Directive.\u00a0 The Directive stated that the reduction goal was to measured against a baseline of the &#8220;maximum daily amount&#8221; specified in the Directive, rather than against the daily average, which is what I used; against that baseline, the reduction is 68%.\u00a0 Please see <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/2010\/06\/22\/correction-to-my-last-post-clarification-from-epa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this post<\/a>\u00a0providing the correction and a statement from EPA for details.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>(One note:\u00a0 Since June 3, the daily numbers are reported as \u201cmore than X gallons,\u201d whereas before that date the reported numbers were simply \u201cX gallons.\u201d\u00a0 The calculations I used to derive the figures above assumed no more than the stated gallon values were applied.\u00a0 Hence, they may be underestimates of actual dispersant usage by BP.)<\/p>\n<p>I may have missed it, but I haven\u2019t been able to find on the Unified Command\u2019s or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/bpspill\/dispersants.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EPA\u2019s website<\/a> any indication that BP applied for and received exemptions to allow it to exceed the volume limits imposed by the Directive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. [Note added 6\/22:\u00a0 I have corrected one of the figures below, which was based on a misunderstanding of the EPA\/Coast Guard Directive.\u00a0 Please see this correction for the updated information and a statement from EPA.] As of yesterday, BP\u2019s use of dispersants to address the ongoing Deepwater Horizon &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,44],"tags":[1061,39204],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-policy","tag-bp-oil-disaster","tag-oil-dispersant"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12585,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/12585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}