This is a very compelling video from a concerned citizen who decided to take his own samples of oil found on the beach in Grand Isle, La and have them tested at a laboratory. In the water portion of the sample the lab found propylene glycol, an ingredient in Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527A, at an estimated concentration of  430 parts per million. Propylene glycol only makes up 1-5% of the Corexit products, so, if this is indeed propylene glycol from Corexit then the concentration of Corexit as a whole is far higher.

According to EPA’s latest analysis of dispersant toxicity released in the document Comparative Toxicity of Eight Oil Dispersant Products on Two Gulf of Mexico Aquatic Test Species Corexit 9500 at a concentration of 42 parts per million killed 50% of the mysid shrimp tested and at a concentration of 130 parts per  million killed 50% of the silverside fish tested. Remember the lab found 430 parts per million of a material that makes up only 1-5% of the Corexit products.  This also does not include the toxicity of the oil itself or an oil/dispersant mix. Click the image above to go to the video or go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq65E7rmO_k Note: the lab technician refers to propylene glycol by one of its other names, propane-diol.

Researchers find evidence of oil spill in Gulf’s food chain
By Harlan Kirgan
Mississippi Press
June 30, 2010

Yellow oil droplets can been seen in a post-larval blue crab.
Harriet Perry, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory

Oil droplets have been found beneath the shells of tiny post-larval blue crabs drifting into Mississippi coastal marshes from offshore waters.

The finding represents one of the first examples of how oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is moving into the Gulf of Mexico’s food chain. The larval crabs are eaten by all kinds of fish, from speckled trout to whale sharks, as well as by shore birds.

The tiny droplets are visible under the transparent shells of the 2-millimeter-sized crabs collected in Davis Bayou, said Harriet Perry, director for the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Center for Fisheries Research and Development.

Spill’s extent and the effects surprising those studying it

Scientists knew weeks ago that much of the oil gushing from a blown-out oil well deep in the Gulf of Mexico remained below the surface, suspended in deep, cold water.

But research they are doing now has surprised them at the extent of the spill and effects on marine life, University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye said Tuesday in UGA’s Marine Sciences Building. Joye, one of the leading scientists tracking the spill, spoke at a weekly update on her research team’s findings.

Seawater samples the team took during a June research voyage had to be diluted before analytical machines could accurately measure the oil levels in them, she said Tuesday.

Other scientists analyzing the samples still haven’t told Joye the precise concentrations of oil they’ve found in the water. But they’ve seen enough to know the levels are much higher than what was found in an earlier research cruise in May, when they measured oil contamination in parts per million or parts per billion in areas close to the spill.

The more recent water samples, many taken hundreds of feet deep in the Gulf, contain much more oil, she said.

The water samples come from in and around vast plumes of oil, methane and other chemicals mixed with sea water that have been pouring out of a broken oil well since a BP-owned drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded April 20 and sank four days later.