Web Release Date: January 19,
Slightly Weathered Exxon Valdez Oil Persists in Gulf of Alaska Beach Sediments after 16 Years
Auke Bay Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 11305 Glacier Highway, Juneau, Alaska 99801-8626, U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska 99503, Institute of Arctic Biology, 907 Yukon Drive, University of Alaska, Fairbanks Alaska 99775, Post Office Box 210332, Auke Bay, Alaska 99821, Payne Environmental Consultants, Inc., 1991 Village Park Way, Suite 206 B, Encinitas, California 92024; 6536 20th Avenue NE, Seattle, Washington 98115
Received for review August 20, 2006
Revised manuscript received November 30, 2006
Accepted December 5, 2006
Abstract:
Oil stranded by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill has persisted in subsurface sediments of exposed shores for 16 years. With annualized loss rates declining from ~68% yr-1 prior to 1992 to ~4% yr-1 after 2001, weathering processes are retarded in both sediments and residual emulsified oil ("oil mousse"), and retention of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is prolonged. The n-alkanes, typically very readily oxidized by microbes, instead remain abundant in many stranded emulsified oil samples from the Gulf of Alaska. They are less abundant in Prince William Sound samples, where stranded oil was less viscous. Our results indicate that, at some locations, remaining subsurface oil may persist for decades with little change.
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