Effects of Oil Spill Dispersants on Marine Organisms

Editor’s Preface the env 3100 Issues in Environmental Science course is the “writing in the discipline” course for the environmental science program. in partial satisfaction of the course requirements, students must write a literature review on a topic of their choice that is both timely and relevant to the environmental science community. the most outstanding literature review is published in the JsResa the following summer. starting in april of 2010, the British Petroleum drilling rig Deepwater Horizon began leaking an estimated 8,400 cubic meters per day of oil into the gulf of Mexico until september of 2010 when the relief well was completed and the oil discharge ceased. Oil spill dispersants were used to help mitigate the effects of the oil in the gulf waters. in particular, the use of Corexit 9527 and Corexit 9500A in the gulf of Mexico caught the author’s attention because this was the first time that the corexit dispersants were used underwater (at high pressures and low temperatures) and because of the toxicity of both dispersants, alone and in combination with crude oil. herein, Maya hutchins reviews the available literature in the Fall of 2011, focussing on an article by schor (2010) [1], toward a better understanding of the impacts resulting from the use of the corexit disperants on the gulf of Mexico ecosystem in the long term.