Court revives call for oil spill pollutant list
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Associated Press
January 11, 2013
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has revived an environmental group’s call to make BP PLC list the amount and type of every pollutant that got into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 oil spill.
But it upheld a lower court ruling that the rest of the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit became legally irrelevant when BP capped the well.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took issue with BP’s contention that the pollution information is readily available on the Internet, comparing the search to looking “for a needle in a cyberspace haystack.”
BP had no comment on the opinion.
The center’s oceans director, Miyoko Sakashita, says public disclosure of toxic materials is important for restoring the area and for public health. She says the center is considering options on the dismissed claims.