COMPOSITIONAL CHANGES IN DISPERSED CRUDE OIL IN THE WATER COLUMN DURING A NEARSHORE TEST SPILL

ABSTRACT As part of the American Petroleum Institute sponsored tidal area dispersant project involving two test spills of Murban crude oil in Long Cove, Searsport, Maine in August, 1981, water samples were collected. This paper deals with the analytical results for the analyses of water samples collected for analysis of non-volatile hydrocarbons by: infrared spectrophotometric quantitation of total CCl4 extractables, and gravimetric analysis of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon fractions followed by capillary gas chromatography. In the dispersant-treated oil discharge area, there were two primary water sampling locations during the discharge phase of the experiment: an upper intertidal area (maximum depth = 2 meters) and a lower intertidal area (maximum depth = 3.5 meters). The gas chromatographic data for the water samples were treated numerically to obtain parameters whose values reflect the extent of dispersed oil weathering. For the aliphatics, the peak area ratio for n C14/n C18 was calculated for each sample. For the aromatics, the ratio for the peak area sum of the mono, di, and trimethyl naphthalenes to that for the mono, di, tri, and tetramethyl dibenzothiophenes was determined for each sample. At both sampling locations, dispersed oil in water sampled 10 cm off the bottom consistently had a smaller fraction of lower boiling aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons than water sampled at the same place and the same time ½ meter below the surface. In addition, the data show that there is a 12–50 fold decrease in hydrocarbon concentration on going from near surface to near bottom at any given time, even in water as shallow as 2 meters. The data indicate that the primary mechanism for hydrocarbon loss involves volatilization of hydrocarbon fractions. Analyses of water samples taken from submerged plumes of dispersed oil outside the sampling areas demonstrated slower loss of low boiling components consistent with the importance of atmospheric exchange in the weathering process. In the chemical dispersal of an oil spill, it may be most advantageous to use mixing methods that minimize vertical mixing in order to maintain a high concentration of emulsified oil in the upper ½ meter water layer. This will maximize the extent of loss of lower boiling hydrocarbon components into the atmosphere and thus minimize the toxicity of any dispersed oil fractions that diffuse downward and interact with benthic communities.