Project Information

Title: Amendment to Lingering Oil on Boulder-Armored Beaches in the Gulf of Alaska 23 Years after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 11100112-B

Project Year and Number: 2013: 11100112-B

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: None

Principal Investigator (PI): Gail Irvine

Managing Agency: USGS

Assisting Personnel: Mark Carls, Dan Mann

Research Location:

Restoration Category:

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract: This amendment to Project 11100112 solely requests funding for additional hydrocarbon analyses. Our request is prompted by: 1) findings from chemical analyses of passive samplers that were deployed in 2011, and 2) the opportunity to obtain additional samples in 2012 because the majority of our field work was delayed by weather until this summer. The findings from 2011 indicated the presence of dissolved oil constituents at one of the two oiled sites where we deployed passive samplers. There was also some visual indication that the boulder armor at that site had been disturbed. Redeploying passive samplers at the same oiled and control sites this year, prior to our more extensive sampling via chartered vessel, will allow us to make within-site and between-site assessments of oil release over two years. We have sufficient funds for the logistic costs, therefore this is a potentially very high-benefit, low-cost proposition. In this amendment, we are requesting funds for the analysis of hydrocarbon samples by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GCxGC); these would be analyzed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Dr. Chris Reddy). This analytical technique offers an order of magnitude improvement in detection limit and has greater ability to discriminate components of the remaining hydrocarbons than traditional gas chromatography (GC). GCxGC-based techniques use all GC amenable compounds within an oil to examine weathering trends, not just those compounds whose identities are known (or visible using one-dimensional chromatography). We feel it would make a very worthwhile addition to this project. There are no changes to objectives nor to due dates under this amendment. The accompanying budget details our funding request.


Proposal: View (61 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: Not Applicable to this Project

Publications from this Project: None Available