Potential Damage of Oil Wastes in Coastal Estuary Sediments

摘要

Bayou Casotte, Mississippi, an estuarine waterway near the eastern end of Mississippi Sound, has been altered to accommodate an extensive industrial complex including a large oil refinery. Several small oil spill accidents recently occurred in the bayou; the most serious, on June 13, 1981, involved 600 barrels of asphaltic crude. The ecological effects of continued exposure to low level oily wastes were estimated by examining pollution levels in sediments. Toxicological examination of sheepshead minnows, mysid shrimp and amphipods reveals significant mortalities to mysids from bioassay exposures to surficial sediments. Settling rate determinations, leachability, community structure vulnerability, and sediment disturbance probability are factors assimilated into an 'environmental stress index' that indicates this to be a potentially harmful site to bottom feeders and, if sediments are disturbed, to free swimming organisms in sensitive life stages.