Results of the Drilling Fluids Research Program Sponsored by the Gulf Breeze Environmental Research Laboratory, 1976-1984, and Their Application to Hazard Assessment

摘要

The Environmental Research Laboratory, Gulf Breeze, FL, carried out a research program to evaluate the potential impact of drilling fluids on the marine environment from 1976-1983. Results showed that drilling fluids can be toxic to marine animals at certain concentrations and exposure regimes. Drilling fluids can adversely affect animals through physical contact or physiologically. While some components that are toxic are no longer permitted for fluids released on the OCS, diesel oil is a toxic component of used fluids collected recently from the Gulf of Mexico. Models developed to predict the impact of drilling fluids on open, well-mixed marine environments suggested that under 'normal' operating conditions, most detectable adverse effects will be limited to within several hundred meters of the point of discharge.