Coalition to appeal dispersants loss

A coalition of conservation and other groups are appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of oil spill dispersants.

The coalition in August 2012 sued the EPA in the District of Columbia federal court.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on May 7 issued a 21-page opinion dismissing the suit as untimely. The dismissal came at the request of the EPA as well as the American Petroleum Institute, which intervened in the case.

The coalition that brought the suit included Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Cook Inletkeeper, Florida Wildlife Federation, Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Louisiana Shrimp Association, Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance.

On July 8, the coalition filed notice that it would appeal the court’s dismissal.

The coalition questions the safety of dispersants used to break up oil spills.

It says unprecedented volumes of dispersants were used in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill “without prior scientific study and evaluation of the toxicity of those dispersants and any understanding of whether those dispersants were safe for the Gulf of Mexico,” said a July 9 press release from the coalition. “Research in the aftermath of that disaster suggests that indeed they were not safe.”

The essence of the coalition’s claims, Judge Bates wrote, was that EPA violated the Clean Water Act in failing to identify in advance the waters in which listed dispersant products may be used, and the quantities that can be used safely.

EPA decided in 1984 not to pre-specify limits on dispersant use so as to give on-scene coordinators flexibility on how to control a particular spill, the judge said.

Challengers had a limited number of years to contest the EPA’s 1984 decision, and “the time for bringing suit has long since passed,” Bates ruled in dismissing the coalition’s case.

The coalition believes the judge got it wrong, saying: “This interpretation of the law allows an agency to continue violating clear statutory mandates so long as these violations were not caught and corrected within the first six years of their occurrence.”

—Wesley Loy