FROM THE US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR:
Please allow us to provided a brief overview of Inipol’s use in this incident. In 1989, to help with the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the use of an oil spill response technology, “bioremediation,” to increase the natural rate of oil degradation. Crude oil is a good candidate for bioremediation because even without remediation, the oil eventually degrades through natural environmental processes.
Crude oil decomposes as the result of microbial activity along with exposure to sunlight and air; these processes break the oil down into its basic elements. In theory, the more microbes (bacteria) that work on the breakdown process, the faster the degradation occurs. Bioremediation uses an artificial stimulant to increase the numbers of microbes that work at breaking down the crude oil, thereby helping to speed up the natural process.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill area already had a good population of the correct oil-eating bacteria; the bacterial population simply needed to be increased by adding nitrogen and phosphorus. These elements are most easily provided by spreading fertilizer. Toward this end, the French-manufactured liquid fertilizer, Inipol EAP22, was applied to the oiled beaches.