U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

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FOR RELEASE: January 1999

Assessment of PAH Composition of Diesel Fuel Sorbed to
Marine Sediments and Their Toxicity to Aquatic Food Webs

OCS Report MMS 98-0057

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Assessment of PAH Composition of Diesel Fuel Absorbed to Marine Sediments and Their Toxicity to Aquatic Food Webs. This report provides information about the fate and effects of diesel fuel on the sediments and food webs of salt marshes. This study examined the influence of sublethal exposure to sediment-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) on the physiological condition, activity, and abundance of sedimentary bacteria. This project provided useful information to MMS in determining the impacts on salt marshes of oil and gas activity from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Bacterial microcosms were established in the laboratory from sediment taken from a shallow creek-fed pond in the Terrebonne Bay estuary. Under laboratory conditions, bacteria in the sediment rapidly removed PAH, suggesting that even if the marsh were exposed to chronically high levels of petroleum hydrocarbons, chemical evidence of the contaminants would not be detected in sediments. Collectively, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that the bacterial community in the studied salt marsh has adapted to chronic exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons.

For more information about the Environmental Studies Program, contact the Environmental Sciences Section (MS 5430), 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394, telephone (504) 736-2789.

You can obtain copies of the report from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $3.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 98-0057. You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future. Here are the addresses. You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.

Minerals Management Service
Gulf of Mexico OCS Region
Public Information Office (MS 5034)
1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard
New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394
Telephone requests may be placed at
(504) 736-2519 or 1-800-200-GULF
or FAX: (504) 736-2620
INTERNET: http://www.mms.gov/
U.S. Department of Commerce
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, Virginia 22161
(703) 487-4650 or FAX: (703) 321-8547
Rush Orders: 1-800-336-4700

MMS is the Federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil, and other mineral resources on the OCS; and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from Federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on Federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-GOM-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov/
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service: (202) 219-1703

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Last updated on Tuesday, May 11, 1999.