With oil dissipating, lawmakers focus on chemicals used in Gulf spill

Lawmakers focus on chemicals used in oil spill

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are pressing government scientists to explain what effects efforts to get rid of the oil spill will have on the Gulf’s ecosystem.

A new report by the Obama administration characterizes those efforts as remarkably effective.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called the use of chemical dispersants a grand experiment during a Senate hearing Wednesday. Whitehouse said it’s unclear if their use would limit the damage from the spill, or cause greater harm.

BP applied nearly two million gallons of dispersants to the spill to break apart the oil.

Paul Anastas, head of EPA’s Office of Research, said that while the quantity was unprecedented, tests so far have not found dispersants near coasts or wetlands.