- Do you wonder why BP refuses to stop using the chemical
dispersants the EPA ordered BP to stop using?
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- Why?
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- I'll tell you why:
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- BECAUSE THOSE DISPERSANTS KEEP THE OIL UNDERWATER - AWAY
FROM THE NAKED EYE AND SATELLITE VIEW.
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- Says who?
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- Scientists studying the massive underwater oil plumes.
Some of the oil plumes are over 30 foot deep and 26 miles long.
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- One scientists said about using dispersants on oil: "You
don't want to put soap into a fish tank," Hollander said.
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- This discovery seems to confirm the fears of some scientists
that -- because of the depth of the leak and the heavy use of chemical
"dispersants" -- this spill was behaving differently than others.
Instead of floating on top of the water, it may be moving beneath it.
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- That would be troubling because it could mean the oil
would slip past coastal defenses such as "containment booms"
designed to stop it on the surface. Already, scientists and officials in
Louisiana have reported finding thick oil washing ashore despite the presence
of floating booms.
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- It would also be a problem for hidden ecosystems deep
under the gulf. There, scientists say, the oil could be absorbed by tiny
animals and enter a food chain that builds to large, beloved sport-fish
like red snapper. It might also glom on to deep-water coral formations,
and cover the small animals that make up each piece of coral.
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- "It kills them because it prevents them from feeding,"
said Professor James H. Cowan Jr., of Louisiana State University. "It
could essentially starve them to death."
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- The University of South Florida vessel, the Weatherbird
II, used sonar and other devices to sample the water below it. Other scientists
have said they have little of the equipment necessary to find oil under
the water -- leading to debates about whether the underwater plumes were
even there.
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