ADVANCED CHEMICAL FINGERPRINTING FOR OIL SPILL IDENTIFICATION AND NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS

摘要

For petroleum fingerprinting in support of natural resource damage assessments (NRDA) and other regulatory and litigation-driven scientific studies, the state of the art now focuses on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and saturated biomarker analyses, coupled with ratio and/or principal component analysis techniques, for advanced chemical fingerprinting (ACF) and allocation of petroleum mixtures to multiple sources. This strategy is being applied to oil spills, in-ground petroleum releases, and coal tar-petroleum source differentiation scenarios. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) draft injury guidance on NRDA recommends the application of ACF to oil spill assessments under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.