California OCS Phase II Monitoring Program. Year Three Annual Report

Abstract

The objectives of this study were 1) “to detect and measure potential long-term (or short- term) chemical, physical, and biological changes around oil and gas platforms in the southern Santa Maria Basin [located off Point Conception and Point Arguello] and 2) “to determine whether the observed changes are caused by drilling-related activities or whether they are the product of natural processes.” A series of studies were conducted
around Platform Hidalgo and in the vicinity of where Platform Julius, a platform that was never built, would have been installed.

The following are the chapters in this report: 1) Introduction, 2) Field Sampling Design, 3) Physical Oceanography, 4) Sedimentology, 5) Chemical Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Sediments, Pore Water, and Animal Tissues, 6) Chemical Analysis of Trace Metals in Sediments, Pore Waters, and Animal Tissues, 7) Macroinfaunal Assemblages in the Santa Maria Basin off the Coast of Southern California, 8) Life-History Studies of Selected Macroinfaunal Invertebrates from the Santa Maria Basin, California, 9) Sediment Radiography, 10) Soft-Bottom Meiofaunal Assemblages, 11) Reproductive Patterns in Three Species of Harpacticoid Copepods from the Santa Maria Basin, California, 12) Hard-Bottom Epifaunal Assemblages, 13) Program Synthesis and Recommendations.