Don't Go in the Water

“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico. . .

The problems began for the Scheblers a few weeks after the April 20 blow-out. “Our first clue were rashes we both got early in May. Both my husband and I couldn’t get rid of the rashes and had to get cream from our doctor,” Schebler noted, “I never had a rash in my life.”

Then, on “July [23], my husband Warren mowed the lawn. It was hot so he got in the pool to cool off afterward. That afternoon he had severe diarrhea and very dark urine. This lasted about 2 days,” she revealed. . .

A July letter from four top scientists noted, “Corexit 9527A contains 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol), a toxic solvent that ruptures red blood cells, causing hemolysis (bleeding) and liver and kidney damage (Johanson and Bowman, 1991, Nalco, 2010).”

The safety data sheet provided by Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9527A, warns, “Harmful if absorbed through skin. May be harmful if swallowed. May cause liver and kidney effects and/or damage. There may be irritation to the gastro-intestinal tract. . .”

BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, “Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,” almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.

Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf. It has also been found near the Florida border in Cotton Bayou, AL, at about 1/4 the level as in Homosassa, FL. A WKRG segment from August 19 featured an inland water sample that tested for 13.3 ppm of the Corexit dispersant.

What have I been telling you for months? Corexit is highly toxic and illegal to use anywhere in the world except for the United States. It is being taken up into the clouds and deposited on different areas inland when the rain starts to fall. These poor people live an hour from the coast and I'm willing to bet they did not fill their swimming pool with water from the Gulf of Mexico. BP insists that it is no longer using Corexit and has not used any since May. That is a flat-out lie -- people all over the Gulf Coast state that they have seen Blackwater-style mercenaries on the ground spraying Corexit and dumping it from airplanes flying at night, their lights turned off, in violation of the law.

Now you have the proof that the poison is able to be picked up and set back down on innocent people's property. A recent study found that 50ppm of Corexit, the same amount found in this family's pool, kills over 50% of shrimp larvae. Obviously humans are not as susceptible to the dispersant simply because we are much larger, but I don't think any of us want to develop rashes and start passing dark urine after going for a swim in our own backyards. This family should sue BP for everything a slimy lawyer can dream up -- pain and suffering, property damage, psychological trauma and punitive damages. And the government should investigate BP's continuing use of Corexit, but that will never happen because they are in on the cover-up.