HOUSTON (CN) - Exposure to chemical dispersants BP used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill left a commercial diver with seizures, unable to walk and going blind - and two members of his dive team committed suicide, the man claims in Harris County Court.
David Hogan and his wife sued BP and NALCO Co. - which made the Corexit oil dispersants - and a host of other defendants, including Halliburton, Transocean, ConocoPhillips, Xplore Oil & Gas and Stuyvesant Dredging Co.
After BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010, unleashing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, BP hired contractors to spray and inject more than 1.8 million gallons of Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the complaint.
"Between June 1, 2010 and the end of November, 2010, David Hogan performed commercial diving work from boats and vessels that were owned, leased, chartered, contracted for, and/or under the direction and control of Specialty Offshore, ConocoPhillips, Xplore Oil, and the Stuyvesant defendants in the navigable water of the Gulf of Mexico. On every one of those dives during that period of time, David Hogan dove into waters that were contaminated with both the crude oil and the Corexit® dispersants," the complaint states.
Hogan says that on his first dive, in June 2010, "he immediately noticed that something was different from his prior diving experiences," and that "the oil seemed to have sunk considerably deeper into the depths of the Gulf waters than he had ever seen or experienced before. He immediately terminated his dive and returned to the surface, only to find that his wetsuit looked entirely different than it had ever looked before when he had dived into waters with an oil spill."
Hogan says neither ConocoPhillips nor Specialty Offshore provided him or his team with any information about NALCO's Corexit dispersants.
"Expressing concern for the safety of himself and his dive team, he contacted the ConocoPhillips onsite supervisor, who gave him a 'BP Hotline' to call if people had any concerns with respect to health and safety," according to the complaint.
"Upon calling that number, a person answered, identifying themselves as being with BP. After expressing his concern with respect to what he had seen and experienced during his brief dive, that BP spokesperson told Mr. Hogan there was nothing for him to be concerned about, but that he would have one of BP's health and safety people come out to the ConocoPhillips platform to talk to Mr. Hogan and his dive team.
"Within the hour, a helicopter landed on the platform and a man who introduced himself as being a BP representative got out of the helicopter came over to talk to Mr. Hogan.
"BP's 'health and safety man' represented and assured Mr. Hogan and his dive that, notwithstanding the fact that they would be diving and spending a considerable amount of time in the Deepwater Horizon's oil spill, there was absolutely nothing harmful or hazardous to their safety or health in the oil, in the water, or whatever was causing the oil to sink so deep beneath the surface.