Chemicals and the Environment

From U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):

When there’s an underground oil spill, the primary focus is, naturally, on the spread of the oil and its related contaminants. However, as the oil and other contaminants break down, the chemicals they break down into can spread even more easily than they did.

With that in mind, it’s important to keep those second-level chemicals in mind. We recently completed a survey of two sites where we’ve been tracking underground oil spills for some time.

In some areas, the concentration of the chemicals that the oil and other contaminants broke down into exceeded the original chemicals by one to two orders of magnitude. Since these second-level chemicals aren’t covered under regulatory monitoring and reporting requirements, this is important information for future spill monitoring considerations.

Read more about the study and other research like it in our Geohealth Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2ayBYsA

Image shows scientists collecting a groundwater sample from a well at the USGS Bemidji Crude-Oil Spill Research Site, Minnesota. Photo Credit: Jared Trost, USGS. #USGS #Science #OilSpill#Toxicology #Chemistry