INE Work with Oil Dispersants

CROSERF and Beyond

NewFields Beaufort Sea Workshop

26, 27 March 2008

Robert A. PerkinsCivil and Environmental EngineeringInstitute of Northern EngineeringUniversity of Alaska Fairbanksffrap@uaf.edu

Photo: Marinco Bioassay Laboratory

CROSERF

• Chemical Response to Oil Spills: Ecological Effects Research Forum

Sponsors of Research

• Texas General Land Office (TGLO);• Florida Department of Environmental Protection

(FL DEP);• California Office of Oil Spill Prevention and

Response (CA OSPR);• Alaska Department of Environmental

Conservation (ADEC);• Exxon Corporation;• American Petroleum Institute (API), and• Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC).

Plus

• Minerals Management Service (MMS);

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and

• Chevron Corporation

Universities and Sponsors

• University of California, Santa Cruz (later UC Davis) - CA OSPR

• University of South Florida - FL DEP

• Texas A&M University - TGLO

• University of Alaska Fairbanks - ADEC

CROSERF Testing

• Standard species and standard oil– Calibrate labs

• Standard species and local oil– Is our oil different?

• Local species and local oil– Are our local species different?

Test Chambers

Test Regimes

• Species– Mysid– Fish larvae– Tanner crab larvae– Microtox

• Oils– PBCO– ANS, Fresh– ANS, Weathered

• 200 deg. C.

• Treatment– WAF– CE-WAF

• Exposure, 96-hr– Chambers– Static with Renewal

Almost forgot

• VOA– C6-C9

• BTEX

• TPH– C10-C36

• THC, and

• Loading

Whoops

• Warm25 °C

• Cold4 to 7 °C

Quick Summary

VOA/BTEX in WAF

Fresh WAF toxicitySpecies Temp LC 50,

mg/L

LL 50

mg/L

VOA Loading

C. bairdi 7 °C 9.61 285

M. bahia 25 °C 7.6 654

Toxicity proportional to VOA

Little TPH

CE-WAF Fresh ANS data

LC 50 Loading TPH THC VOA

Species mg/L mg/L mg/L mg/L

C. Bairdi

7 °C

203 2.22 10. 8.41

M. Bahia

25 °C

127 2.4 5.08 2.22

Weathered, WAF

Weathered CE-WAF

Fresh CE-WAF

Some thoughts

• Always measure VOA!

• For WAF, VOA may be much more significant than TPH

• Both fresh and weathered

Why are we testing?

• Is Corexit 9500, less or more toxic to species X than Corexit 9527 or other dispersant?

• Are the results for Brand X likely to be the same at 7 °C than 25 °C?

• Need standardized tests.

Fig. 1-9. Concentrations of oil in the water column following dispersal of a 0.1 mm thick slick of fresh oil treated with a chemical dispersant (after Lewis and Aurand, 1997)

00:00 06:00 12:00 18:00 24:000

10

20

30

40

50

60

WAF LR = 1001 mg/L WAF LR = 4022 mg/L CE-WAF LR = 501 mg/L

Concentration Decline of Fresh ANS Crude Oil Test Solutionsin Continuous Exposure Tests

Measu

red

VO

A C

on

cen

trati

on

s, m

g/L

Time, hour

Question?

• How does the concentration of toxic components vary with time and depth beneath a spill if we don’t disperse?

• Same if we disperse

• Toxicity should probably be gauged with respect to weathered oil

Research question

• Where does the VOA from fresh oil go?

• If acute toxicity is mostly from VOA,

• If it has left the slick and is in the water, then

• Dispersing might not affect acute toxicity

A Tail of Two Tests

• Mysidopsis bahia

Photo: Marinco Bioassay Laboratory

Mysids at UAF Lab in Fairbanks

• Set up lab, one month• Two grad students, one month• Two sets of tests, continuous and flow- through• Mysids delivered for $75/ box• One shipment with excessive deaths

– Order another, 5 days

• Florida bioassay lab: $500, continuous 96-hr

Tanner Crab Larvae at UAF, Seward Marine Center

• Chionoecetes

bairdi• Collect Dec.• Birth ?

– Late Feb.– Early April

Adult female Tanner crabs (Chionecetes biardi)

Cold-water species resources

• One student and 1.5 technicians

• 600 km from campus

• Three and half months

• Plus care and feeding of gravid crabs– December to April

Cold Water Standard Test Species

• Can we find a cold-water test species that is as convenient and practical as equivalent warm-water species, such a M. bahia?

• Lose a week with a mishap

• Not a year

Criteria

• Laboratory viability and practicality– CROSERF chambers, 96-hour acute– Available year around

• Susceptibility to known or potential stressors – Immature or larval

• Socially recognized • Relevance to oil spills and dispersants• The criteria of comparability

– ASTM, USEPA

Method

• Ask the experts

• Compare lists and compendiums– EPA, ASTM

• Phylogenetic relations via taxonomy tables

Crustaceans (small: mysids and copepods)

Phylum: Arthropoda (arthropods) Class Crustaceans

Order Family Genus Species AK? Ref.

Subclass Copepoda (copepods)

Calanoida 

  Acartia clausi   2

    Acartia tonsa    

      (several) AK  

Harpacticoida   Tigriopus brevicornis   2

      (several) AK  

MYSIDS Malacostraca subclass Peracarida

MysidacaeSuborderMysina

Mysidae Mysidopsis bigelowi   2

  Mysidae Holmesimysis costata   16

  Mysidae Archaeomysis grebnitzkii AK 4,5

    Mysidopsis almyra   2

    Mysidopsis bahia 

  8

  ? Acanthomysis pseudomacropsis AK 25

No species met all the criteria very well

• Subjective evaluation

• Came up with six likely

Likely species

• Mysids and copepods

• Pink salmon fry

• Tidepool sculpin

• Topsmelt (Atherinops affinis)

• Urchins:– Purple (Strongylocentrotus

purpuratus)– Green ( S. droebachiensis)– Red ( S. franciscanus)

• Shellfish – Pacific oyster (Crassostrea

gigas )

Today

• Herring eggs and larvae– Spawning season south to north

Acknowledgements

Sara Rhoton, Ingegerd Ask of UAFBrad Hahn and Leslie Pearson of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Spill Prevention and Response A.J.Paul, Judy McDonald, and staff of the Seward Marine CenterJohn Agosti of the Qutekcak Shellfish Hatchery Howard Feder, Ted Cooney, Ray Highsmith of the Institute of Marine Science of UAFRon Smith of the Department of Biology of UAF Peter Armato of the U.S. Park ServiceDoug Woodby of the Alaska Department of Fish and GameTom Dean of Coastal Resources Associates. Others who took the time to discuss this: Scott Kellman of Aquatic Biosystems, Bill Putnam of Sticklebacks Unlimited, Marylin Schwartz of Ogden Environmental, Gary Buhler of Northwest Aquatic Science, John Hunt of the Marine Pollution Studies Lab of UCSC.