Hydrosphere Research is working with the Environmental Protection Agency to Determine the Toxicity of Diluted and Synthetic Bitumen and Other Crude Oils Likely to be Transported in the U.S.

The rising demand, production, and shipping of petroleum oils in the U.S. equates to an increased risk of spills/pipeline leaks. The spills/leaks of oil cause major challenges for safe land and water management because of toxic contaminants present in oil.  The toxicity of oils varies with the types of oil, the loading rate or concentration of oil, weathering state of oil, type of oil spill countermeasure products as well as the species and physiological status of fauna and flora.  In order to better assess risk to communities and ecosystems, continued research on oil toxicity and characterization is needed.

Thus, Hydrosphere Research will conduct a series of toxicity tests with different aquatic species in freshwater and seawater for the determination of severity of toxicity using Water Accommodating Fraction, (WAF) mixture of oil in source water generated on both fresh and weathered oils. Each fresh and weathered oil type will be characterized to determine their physical and chemical characteristics. Each generated WAF will be measured to determine quantity of oil entrained in the mixture. The main objective is to evaluate toxicity of oil, both fresh and weathered, obtained from Alberta Canada using both freshwater and marine species.