Novel fluorometric on-site analysis method for oil contamination at a coarse-sediment shoreline

Abstract

Oil contamination level and extent at coarse-sediment shorelines, such as sand beach, could not be clearly characterized by conventional quantification methods because quantification of oil in sediment is highly dependent on grain size and weight of sediment itself. We found that, as an alternative, oil contamination at a sandy shoreline can be better evaluated by measuring the oil content of pore water than by measuring oil concentrations in sediments. In this presentation, a novel fluorometric on-site analysis method for oil in pore water is introduced and applied to the Hebei Spirit oil spill case, one of the world’s largest oil spill incident in recent years. The contamination level and temporal variation of dissolved/dispersed oil in pore water was investigated and the result was illustrated by means of GIS mapping techniques. The introduced fluorescence method was capable of generating data comparable to that of GC, but more rapidly and cost-effectively.