Chemical assessment in Camden Bay (Sivulliq Prosect and Hammerhead Drill site), Beaufort Sea, Alaska

Abstract

From the Abstract: “Sediment and water were collected in Camden Bay (Alaskan Beaufort  Sea) during August 2008 to help establish a baseline data set in advance of proposed offshore oil and gas exploration and production. Surface sediments were collected at 46 locations, short sediment cores (8-10 cm long) were collected at 12 locations and hydrographic profiles and water samples were collected at 8 locations. The sampling stations were configured as follows: 6 locations within 250 m (L250 stations) and 6 locations between 250 and 500 m (L500 stations) of a possible future Sivulliq drill site, 10 locations near a 1985 Hammerhead drill site (HH stations), 19 random stations from a hexagonal grid across the study area (HEX stations) and 5 stations nearer to shore along a possible future pipeline corridor (P stations). The samples were used for chemical and biological studies. This report presents results from the chemical studies that include the following: (1) sediment total concentrations of aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), selenium (Se), silver (Ag), vanadium (V), zinc (Zn), total organic carbon (TOC), calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), grain size, petroleum hydrocarbons (PH), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and radionclides (210Pb, 137Cs and 226Ra used to determined sedimentation rates) and (2) water column concentrations of salinity, temperature, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids (TSS) and particulate organic carbon (POC).”