USGS Water Seminar Series – The HOPs you don’t want in your beer: Hydrocarbon Oxidation Products – a new class of emerging contaminants?
Presented by: Barbara Bekins, US Geological Survey Emerita Scientist
Abstract:
Where spilled oil and fuel contaminate groundwater, regulators require measurements of a few specific hydrocarbons (e.g. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes) as well as total petroleum hydrocarbons in the diesel range (TPHd). Unfortunately, our research revealed that TPHd measures only about one-third of the nonvolatile dissolved organic compounds (NVDOC) migrating from the source zone at two crude oil sites (link) and a jet fuel spill site (link). Most of what is quantified as NVDOC and TPHd consists of polar compounds that are partial hydrocarbon oxidation products (HOPs) (link). Oil company researchers are arguing that HOPs should not be subject to regulation, proposing instead that polar compounds be removed with silica gel clean-up (SGC) and only the remaining “true hydrocarbon” fraction be regulated (link). At the USGS Bemidji oil spill site concentrations measured after SGC are only 2% of NVDOC (link) demonstrating that the plume is dominated by HOPs. The plume is a complex chemical cocktail with over 2,000 compounds and NVDOC concentrations exceeding 20 mg C/L. This talk will cover the role of the Bemidji site in hydrocarbon regulation, the current controversy, and the toxicity tests we have performed to resolve the controversy.
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