Sediment hydrocarbon contamination at the site of the Baie Verte, Newfoundland, oil spill: Results of a Four Year Study

Sediments samples were taken at 3, 15, 27, and 39 months following a spill of diesel oil at Baie Verte, Newfoundland, to determine the effects of weathering on diesel oil trapped in the sediments and to attempt to develop a suitable method for extraction and analysis. Extraction was carried out using hexane, concentration was effected by a procedure modified from Junk et al. (1974) and analysis was completed within 18.0 min by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a bonded amino silane-(NH 2) column (5 μm, 5 mm × 25 cm) with hexane as mobile phase. A backflush cycle of 22.0 min using hexane and methl-t-butyl ether (90:10%) was performed to elute any polar compounds from the column. This class analysis by HPLC indicated a decrease in the amount of naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene and benzo[a]pyrene equivalents over time and at the conclusion of the study (39 months) no PAHs except for fluorene were found in the sediments from Baie Verte.