Oil Spill Monitoring Handbook

Sharon Hook is a Senior Ecotoxicologist with CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Sydney. Sharon has over 20 years of experience in aquatic ecotoxicology and oceanography. Her research interests include applying modern omics-based approaches to environmental problems, determining the impacts of low-level, long-term toxic responses, and the design and implementation of toxicity testing. She has been involved in the risk assessments following several oil spills, including the Exxon Valdez, the Selendag Ayu spills (both before joining CSIRO) and the Montara well release. She is involved in ongoing projects for BP and Chevron characterizing the Great Australian Bight. Sharon has authored over 60 scientific publications. Graeme Batley is a Chief Research Scientist with the CSIRO Land and Water Flagship and past Director of the Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research based in Sydney. He is one of Australia's leading researchers of trace contaminants in aquatic systems, actively researching this area for over 40 years. He was a lead author of the water and sediment quality guidelines for Australia and New Zealand in 2000 and of the Australian Guidelines for Water Quality Monitoring and Reporting, and has recently led the updating of toxicant guidelines for both waters and sediments. Graeme is author of over 400 scientific publications. Michael Holloway is Environment and Scientific Coordinator for marine oil spill preparedness and response for the Victorian Government. He trained in marine ecology with a quantitative experimental focus, and has worked at the interface between marine science and management for much of his career. His breadth of interests has led to publications on a range of marine topics including invasive species impacts, ecosystem-based management and risk assessment methods, the national policy on aquatic biosecurity and management of environmental monitoring programs in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. He is currently interested in the application of decision analytic techniques to the complex environmental problems encountered during oil spill response. Paul Irving is Scientific Coordinator at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, responsible for marine environment protection and maritime spill response science and advice. A diverse 30-year background across many aspects of marine and coastal science, conservation and management, from tropical to Antarctic, provides a unique perspective on Australasian and Pacific marine pollution response. As a firm believer in collaboration and partnership to provide practical solutions, Paul spends much of his considerable energies looking for ways to incorporate new science and research knowledge into spill planning, so that communities (social and ecological) affected by maritime pollution get the effective response they deserve. Andrew Ross is a research scientist with CSIRO. He leads research projects focused on hydrocarbon seeps, the development of new hydrocarbon sensor devices and baseline and oil spill monitoring. He and his team were involved in the Gulf of Mexico MC252 spill response, spending 4 months monitoring surface waters in 2010 and undertaking hydrocarbon seep surveys close to the MC252 incident location in 2011. More recently he has commenced a series of research projects to characterize the baseline hydrocarbon concentrations and geology of the Great Australian Bight. Andrew joined CSIRO in 2004 and has qualifications in marine biology, oceanography and petroleum geoscience.

Foreword

Preface

About the editors

About the authors

Disclaimer

Acknowledgments

Introduction to Oil Spill Monitoring

Stages of a spill response

Scale of the oil spill and the response strategy

Spilled Oil: Overview of Composition, Fate, Effects and Response Options

Properties of oils

Fate of oils in the environment

Bioaccumulation and toxicity of oil

Effects of oil in marine habitats

Oil spill response options

Preparing for Oil Spill Monitoring

Designing a monitoring program

Study design for environmental monitoring

Field sampling program

Laboratory analyses

Data handling and management

Responding to an Oil Spill: Initial Assessment

Functions, roles and structures

Preparedness and contingency planning

The spill response process

Response Option Assessment

Evaluating response options: Net Environmental Benefit Analysis

Decision making for shoreline cleanup and assessment

Response evaluation

Response Phase Monitoring

Introduction

Oil-spill trajectory modelling

Physical monitoring

Vessel-based surveillance

Chemical monitoring

Hazard assessment following an oil spill

Habitat monitoring

Recovery-phase Monitoring

Monitoring designs to detect impacts and recovery

Oil concentration and composition in the environment

Direct laboratory toxicity assessment of environmental samples

Molecular biomarkers

Community structure analysis

Ecosystem recovery

References

Appendices

Appendix A. Standard operating procedure for shipboard collection of surface waters using wide-mouth jars

Appendix B. Standard operating procedure for collection of waters for dissolved hydrocarbon analysis from a Niskin bottle

Appendix C. Standard operating procedure for the collection of waters for volatile organic compound (BTEX) analysis

Appendix D. Standard operating procedure for shipboard collection of surface oil using GO nets

Appendix E. Standard operating procedure for the collection of thin sheens using slick samplers

Appendix F. Use of sensors for oil spill monitoring

Appendix G. Standard operating procedure for grab sample collection of sediment for PAH, biomarkers, and TOC analyses

Appendix H. Standard operating procedure for collection of overlying waters plus sediment from corers for PAHs and biomarker analysis

Appendix I. Taking sediment samples with a manual push corer

Appendix J. Standard operating procedure for pre-cleaning of equipment prior to sampling for headspace gas and organic geochemistry

Appendix K. Standard operating procedure for collection of sediments for molecular microbial analysis

Appendix L. Standard operating procedure for collection of seafood samples for analysis of taint

Appendix M. Standard operating procedure for the collection and archiving of tissue samples for biomarker analysis

Appendix N. Standard operating procedure for sampling plankton community structure and biomass

Appendix O. Collecting samples for sediment infaunal analysis

Appendix P. Standard operating procedure for sampling intertidal and subtidal areas for community composition

Appendix Q. Standard operating procedure for surveying the impacts of oil spills on bird populations

Appendix R. Standard operating procedure for surveying the impacts of oil spills on non-avian marine wildlife

Appendix S. Examples of sample data sheets

Appendix T. Overview of shoreline assessment

Appendix U. Standard operating procedure for determining shoreline gradient

Appendix V. Standard operating procedure for requesting oil spill trajectory modelling

Appendix W. Example of the activation pro-forma used for team deployment
Glossary of terms and acronyms

Index