WWF says harmful dispersant should not be used for oil spill “cleanup”

Toronto, August 4, 2015 – WWF-Canada opposes the approval of Corexit 9500A as an oil spill-treating agent due to high levels of toxicity and its overall ineffectiveness at shielding shorelines, seabirds and marine mammals from oil spill damage.

WWF-Canada recently sent a letter to Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq in response to Environment Canada’s request for submissions on whether to add new products, such as the dispersant Corexit 9500A, to an approved list for use in oil spill cleanup operations.

Dispersants are products which are meant to break up slicks of oil into small droplets, making them easier to disperse throughout large volumes of water and speeding up the rate at which they biodegrade. Though some chemicals have been known to be effective in this manner, others have shown vast discrepancies in their success between lab tests and real-world applications.

“Corexit 9500A does not have a reliable enough track record in the field to be listed as a spill-treating agent,” says WWF-Canada President and CEO David Miller. “In some cases—such as the Deepwater Horizon blowout—it was shown to disperse less than 10 per cent of the oil from the water’s surface, still leaving much of the oil to come into contact with shorelines, seabirds and mammals.”

Even worse: The product can add an extra layer of toxicity to an already disastrous situation. “You can end up with a scenario where the cure is worse than the disease,” says Miller.

Another major concern with adding products to the list of spill-treating agents is that it creates the impression that there is a simple fix when an environmentally ruinous blowout occurs. Large oil companies often seek regulatory approval for their activities on the basis that they have a cleanup plan; that they can deploy dispersants to ‘treat’ such spills on a grand scale. However, evidence suggests that applying dispersants to oil spills is at best ineffective and at worst, an exacerbating factor.

This false impression of a quick fix for oil spills is of great concern to WWF-Canada, as melting sea ice opens up the North to increased economic development, including oil and gas extraction in both the western Arctic in the Beaufort Sea, and the eastern Arctic in Baffin Bay. For the past several years, WWF-Canada has, along with Ecojustice, made several submissions to the National Energy Board demanding that the board not grant any exceptions to strict safety regulations of offshore drilling activities.

“There is only one effective way to treat an oil spill,” says Miller. “Prevent it from happening in the first place.”

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For more information, contact

Tammy Thorne, Senior Manager Strategic Communications, WWF-Canada
C: 416-347-1894 E: [email protected]
 

About WWF

WWF-Canada is part of WWF (World Wildlife Fund), one of the world’s largest and most respected conservation organizations. WWF-Canada has close to 50 years of experience implementing science-based knowledge and research into on-the-ground projects. WWF is creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature thrive. Visit wwf.ca for more information.