Ecological and human health risk assessments of the trecate 24 oilwell blowout

摘要

Battelle conducted an evaluation of the ecological and human health effects of the Feruary 1994 blowout of AGIP's oil well Trecate No.24, located near Trecate, Italy, that is ongoing. Battelle's ecological assessment consisted of: 1) estimating exposure and effects of selected receptor species to oil and residual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); and 2) monitoring the recovery of wildlife populations in the affected areas. Battelle's human health assessment consisted of an evaluation of exposure of the local farming community to PAHs in bioremediated soils, those dissolved in the underlying acquifer, and those present in foods such as fish, frogs, and garden fruits and vegetables. By 1997, estimated ecological risks to predators of frogs and small mammals, both common in the agricultural area affected by the oil spill, were generally within acceptable limits in comparison to a similar background area. However, ecological risks for the same receptors were ten to one hundred times higher in areas of highest soil contamination immediately around the well site. These risks were due primarily to potential cancerogenic rather than toxic effects. By 1997, bird and small mammal populations had generally returned to normal in the effected area to irrigated agriculture, appear to have been greater than those cuased by exposure to oil and its PAH residuals. With regard to preliminary human health effects due to exposure to PAH residuals in food, estimated cancer incidence and toxicological risk for adults, based on conservative assumptions, are on the order of 10~(-3)/10~(-4) and 6.88 (hazard index), respectively.