BP oil dispersal may hide a load of problems

Whether BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout is pumping out an Exxon Valdez every four days, or less than that, it's not dropping an Exxon Valdez sized mess on the beach at all right now.

That's a good thing right? Maybe not.

Since we don't even know right now where that spewing oil will settle, we have no idea what sort of problems it may be causing.

Because of the leak's extreme depth, and the effects of dispersants, (various groups) say this spill is breaking the maxim that oil floats. Instead, they fear it is settling on sensitive corals, or poisoning ecosystems that produce shrimp, snapper and sport fish -- all in places too deep for scientists to watch or help.

In Alaska, people could scrub oil off rocks, clams or other shore shellfish, or even try to help otters or seabirds. No chance, here.

That's why there's no need to hold back on labeling this for what it is.

"Let's see it for what it is: To me, it's a disaster already. It doesn't have to go up on the beach," said Ronald J. Kendall, a professor at Texas Tech University who studies oil's effect on ecosystems. He said the spill's impacts on underwater creatures might not be fully understood for years: "It's a massive eco-toxicological experiment underway."

I'm sure Prof. Kendall isn't fond of this "experiment."

But, what about BP's vaunted, touted, dispersants? Won't they break the oil up enough that it won't cause too much harm when it settles? Probably not:

"By dispersing the stuff at depth, it creates essentially smaller globules of oil (and) it makes the oil mire likely to be affected by even slow-moving currents," said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor of oceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University. "We just don't know where it is, and we don't know where it's going."

In other words, some oil could smother a strand of coral for a while, until a relatively mild eddy releases it, and it then moves on enough, just enough, to drop on another strand of coral.