Petition under the Clean Water Act to Establish Toxicity Criteria and Require Toxicity Testing and Public Disclosure of Ingredients for Products on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule

The petition argues that current EPA regulations for the National Contingency Plan (NCP) Product Schedule are inadequate because they lack safety criteria and permit the withholding of ingredient information as confidential business information (CBI). Using the Deepwater Horizon disaster as a case study, the petitioners claim that the lack of data on chronic sub-lethal impacts, bio-accumulation, and subsea behavior led to environmental unknowns and hindered medical responses. They request that the EPA implement a more robust testing suite—including algal species and various water pressures and temperatures—and make full ingredient disclosure a condition for listing on the schedule.

• Current EPA regulations for the NCP Product Schedule establish a minimum effectiveness threshold for dispersants but do not set any toxicity criteria for listing.
• The existing toxicity testing process is limited to 96-hour and 48-hour mortality tests on only two species: silversides and mysid shrimp.
• A significant majority of dispersants on the NCP Product Schedule do not disclose all ingredients due to claims of confidential business information (CBI).
• The Deepwater Horizon disaster highlighted regulatory failures, with approximately 1.84 million gallons of dispersants applied without sufficient data on their subsea behavior or chronic impacts.
• The lack of ingredient transparency during the Gulf oil spill hindered medical personnel treating cleanup workers and prevented researchers from fully assessing health effects.
• Petitioners propose that the EPA adopt a testing model similar to the Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) methods, which measure chronic effects such as larval survival, growth, and fecundity.
• The petition argues that the EPA has the legal authority under the Clean Water Act to mandate safety determinations and identify the quantities of chemicals that can be used safely in specific waters.

APA

Earthjustice (2010). Petition under the Clean Water Act to Establish Toxicity Criteria and Require Toxicity Testing and Public Disclosure of Ingredients for Products on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule. http://www.earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/dispersant_petition_0.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Petition under the Clean Water Act to Establish Toxicity Criteria and Require Toxicity Testing and Public Disclosure of Ingredients for Products on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule. 2010. http://www.earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/dispersant_petition_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Petition under the Clean Water Act to Establish Toxicity Criteria and Require Toxicity Testing and Public Disclosure of Ingredients for Products on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule |date=13 October 2010 |url=http://www.earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/dispersant_petition_0.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2010petition, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Petition under the Clean Water Act to Establish Toxicity Criteria and Require Toxicity Testing and Public Disclosure of Ingredients for Products on the National Contingency Plan Product Schedule}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2010}, month = oct, url = {http://www.earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/dispersant_petition_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }