Coastal High Marsh Oil Spill Cleanup By Burning: 5-Year Evaluation

Abstract

ABSTRACT On 7 January 1992, rupture of an underground oil transfer pipeline spilled 2,950 barrels of South Texas light crude oil (API gravity 37) into a high salt-marsh environment along Chiltipin Creek near Bayside, San Patricio County, Texas. The designated state On-Scene Coordinator, the Texas General Land Office (TGLO), after coordination with other resource agencies, authorized in situ burning as the primary cleanup technique. Plant frequencies, plant biomass, and hydrocarbon levels in impacted and control areas were monitored between October 1992 and January 1998. Despite severe initial damage, most of the impacted area was revegetated within the first two growing seasons. However, significant differences in vegetation patterns between the two areas continued to exist in January 1998. Linear regression of plant frequency data gives a predicted recovery in the year 2007 (14–15 years post-burn). Plant biomass in the impacted area approximated levels in the control area after only 2 years. Hydrocarbon concentrations in the impacted area remained high after 3 years, but a strong correlation to vegetation patterns over time was not apparent. Results of this study supports the hypothesis that use of in situ burning as a response tool has distinct advantages over other countermeasures.