Assessment of treated vs untreated oil spills (interim report). COO-4047-004

• Main Author: Wilson, M.P.
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: 02 PETROLEUM; OIL SPILLS; MANAGEMENT; RESEARCH PROGRAMS; ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS; ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT; MASSACHUSETTS; OFFSHORE SITES; TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT; US DOE; MASS TRANSFER; NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS; NORTH ATLANTIC REGION; US ORGANIZATIONS; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6749166; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6749166; https://doi.org/10.2172/6749166

A collection of papers is presented which represents a portion of the work that is being accomplished for the Division of Environmental Control Technology under Department of Energy Contract No. E(11-1)4047. Each paper is written as a separate entity to enable its separation from the report without losing its meaning. Very early in the study attempts were made to mimic a spill in a natural environment. Under the simulated natural test, very little oil enters the water column, far less than is normally used for bio-assay and LD/sub 50/ evaluations. Air, surface, and water column samples taken at the Buzzards Bay spill were compared with the same oil exposed in the laboratory under simulated conditions. The chromatograms of the laboratory results were almost identical to those found in the field. Further, it confirmed that the lighter fractions, i.e., C/sub 10/ to C/sub 12/ and below, enter the atmosphere in the field. This leads one to question the validity of many toxicity tests where these components are not permitted to evaporate and are forced into the water column. Additional chemical, physical and biological aspects are discussed.