Analytical Chemistry Support to the Gulf Oil Spill
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
The recent explosion of a drilling rig 50 miles off the Louisiana coast and the subsequent massive oil leak is expected to have substantial effects on the environment. At the current rate, the spill is expected to surpass the 11 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Various investigations, monitoring activities, damage assessments, and other related studies will be occurring for many years as a result of this event. From an analytical chemistry standpoint, several relatively specialized procedures will be required to assure that contaminants detected originated from this spill. In addition, a certain amount of standardization between all laboratories performing testing will be necessary to assure comparable data.
The key procedures that will be used for much of the testing are briefly described in the following:
