World Energy Consumption >75% Fossil Fuels

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1 World Energy Consumption >75% Fossil Fuels Deepwater Oil Wells

2 Chemistry of Oil and Oil Spills: what s the big deal

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4 Oil Spills: what s the big deal? { Mechanisms causing Environmental Impacts from Oil Spills: Toxicity & Route of Exposure Smothering/coating Oxygen depletion Carbon enrichment Remedial activities Ecological Geological Economic Sociological

5 Human Impacts from Oil Spills: Exposure to toxic components of oil and dispersants (mostly cleanup/response workers) Exposures to users/swimmers at recreational beached Disruption of normal jobs and the uncertainty associated with this Potential exposures from consumption of contaminated seafood Health effects associated with anxiety from worry about spill effects Economic losses from spill disruptions

6 Typical Coastal Louisiana Marsh Showing Effects of Intrusive Activities, An Environment Under Sever Stress Coastal Wetlands provide: 70 percent of the nation s oysters, 69 percent of domestic shrimp, A leading producer of domestic hard and soft-shell blue crabs In 2011, 1.8 billion pounds of finfish and shellfish, earning $818 million in landings revenue 2011 landings revenue dominated by shrimp ($438 million) and menhaden ($104 million) Over 75% of Louisiana s commercially harvested fish and shellfish species are dependent on wetlands Nursery for northern Gulf fisheries, insects, birds, and migratory birds Numerous ecosystem services

7 You Are What You Eat Secondary and Tertiary Consumers Primary Consumers Primary Producers Paula Lopez-Duarte

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11 6/27/2010

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13 Near Shore Oil Marsh Impact Mostly ecological Beach Impacts Mostly economic

14 Sandy Beaches

15 Coastal Marsh Oil Weathering Aerobic Anaerobic oil impact areas Marsh Oil Weathering Processes: microbial aerobic and photo oxidations re-suspension, redistribution, & burial limited evaporation and dissolution slow anaerobic degradation sedimentation (oil mineral aggregate formation?)

16 Bay Jimmy October 2010 In the summer of 2010, massive amounts of oil, mostly as an emulsion, came ashore along Louisiana s coastal marshes. Samples of marsh contained % levels of oil, compared to off shore samples with mostly ppm and lower levels.

17 TPAH50 ng/l (ppt) 1 1E particulate phase dissolved phase indeterminate phase ppt sorted individual samples ppm ppb Sorted TPAH concentration (ng/l) in seawater samples containing MC-252 matches by phase (all depths) in ppm 2.9 ppm 2.5 ppm 1 Payne Environmental Consultants, Inc. Encinitas, CA jrpayne@sbcglobal.net 2 Consultant. Seattle, WA bdriskell@comcast.net Newfields Environmental Forensics LLC sstout@newfields.com Offshore Sediment Cores

18 March 2011 Recovery started in 2011 in most marsh locations Bay Jimmy May 15, 2011

19 Oil Residues in the Marsh Mousse that came ashore Oil residues on surface Oil residues subsurface Oil associated with fine particles Surface soil samples with small hump Surface oil residues mixed with sediment matter

20 Looks of DWH oil in Louisiana Marshes after 5 years Bay Jimmy 2015

21 Oil Residues in surface sediments are mostly at background levels in 2015 Some moderately weathered oil remains in coastal marshes probably buried in fiddler crab burrows PAH content of sediment samples have changed from mostly petrogenic source to mostly pyrogenic sources in 2015 Oil forensic biomarkers have degraded from an initial pattern found in the Source oil (A) to a heavily weathered current pattern (B)

22 Oil Spill Response Options (what can you do when a spill occurs?) Mechanical Containment & Recovery Controlled Burning ISB Dispersant Application Courtesy of Al Allen

23 The Effects of Weathering on Spilled Oil Days Weeks Months Surface Oil Weathering Toxic & Sticky Floating Sticky Floating Sinking? Gunky Floating Sinking Tarball Nuisance Offshore Response Option Effectiveness 1) Skimming with oil/water separation 2) Dispersing in deep water 3) In-Situ-Burning well offshore Light oils (API 35) Oil Types Heavy oils (API 10)

24 Pass A Loutre the Muddy Mississippi Outflow

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26 Sterane Biomarker Degradation in Coastal marshes MC252 Source Oil Conventional wisdom Pa ern A Pa ern A 191 Pa ern B *

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28 Near Shore Oil Marsh Most Vulnerable Impact Mostly ecological NRDA Beach Least Vulnerable Impacts Mostly Economic