Abstract
ABSTRACT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prohibited the discharge of “free oil” in offshore drilling discharges and proposed new procedures to detect such oil. A statistically designed series of experiments was performed to evaluate three proposed sheen test procedures: EPA's Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and cup protocols. Seventy-four independent observers conducted over 6,360 sheen tests. The experiments evaluated the effects of freshwater and saltwater test media, two lighting types, two mud types, and two oil types (diesel and mineral) at five concentrations (including a blank). The cup and Gulf tests had relatively high false positive rates. The Alaska procedure had a lower false positive rate, but did not detect oil concentrations of 5% reliably under some test conditions. As a result, none of the three procedures used can be considered satsifactory for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit compliance.
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