The absurd application of US clean water environmental rules block the efficient clean up of the BP Gulf oil leak. Equipment that can remove much, if not most, of the oil from the Gulf, such as European oil cleanup technology, cannot be used in the Gulf because the "cleaned water" cannot be returned into the Gulf and must be carted away in the ships.
US environmental regulators require the water to be at least 99.9985% pure, less than 15 parts per million of oil remaining in the water, for it to be returned to the Gulf of Mexico, even though the water is the same water from the Gulf and is much cleaner and has much less oil than when it was removed a short time before.
It is an absurd environmental requirement in the BP oil leak emergency where the removal of as much oil as possible as quickly and efficiently as possible is to everyone's benefit. Every drop of oil removed lessens the chances of damage to wildlife, the fisheries, sea animals, the coast, the marshes, etc.
Read the sad story of how US environmental and labor rules, and Obama's refusal to suspend these rules, turned a leak into a catastrophe in, "Avertible catastrophe: How U.S. labour and environmental rules blocked Dutch spill-cleanup technology" by Lawrence Solomon in the Financial Post.
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