Times: For USF scientists, BP oil spill research is 'an obligation'

[USFishin]

For USF scientists, BP oil spill research is 'an obligation'

June 11, 2010

By Katie Sanders, Times Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG - David Hollander is still waiting for his oil sample.

The University of South Florida chemical oceanographer made headlines this week when he said BP refused to hand over a sample of oil from its Deepwater Horizon well that has spewed millions of gallons of dark crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

The sample is key to determining whether the invisible traces of oil USF detected deep beneath the surface of the gulf are from the blown oil well, he said.

BP attributed the refusal to a miscommunication, but by Friday he still didn't have a sample. Still, Hollander says the controversy is a sideshow to the main event.

He's pretty sure the oil is from Deepwater Horizon but needs to be certain.

There is still much to learn about the mysterious, cloud-like oil lurking deep beneath the surface. The research has brought USF's highly regarded but little-known College of Marine Science the kind of national attention it has long sought.

But to the scientists like Hollander, that's not what this is about.

"This is an obligation," Hollander said.

* * *

USF scientists were not the first to say oil is deep below the gulf's surface. But they were the first to prove it to the satisfaction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists aboard the Pelican, a Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium vessel, found oil droplets about 1,000 meters deep. But NOAA deemed their methods unreliable, casting doubt on the findings.

Enter USF.

About the same time as the Pelican mission, a USF researcher pointed out a basic math problem: oil clumping on the surface did not add up to the amount estimated to be gushing like a firehose a mile below the surface.

Where was the oil, and how was it reacting to the ocean water and currents?

That question, coupled with the Pelican's findings, gave them reason to believe they would find something. So the scientists set out on a weeklong mission aboard the Weatherbird II, which has state-of-the-art monitoring technology.

"We put labs in a can these days," Hollander explained.

Sensors on the research vessel took constant samples of the water and reported suspicious layers a quarter-mile beneath the surface. The technology didn't spell out what was happening, but at least they knew where to look.

Then they tossed gliders and lowered clustered, flower-like metal canisters into the water, the latter device capable of taking samples more than a mile deep.

The Weatherbird crew got samples at 10 locations but have analyzed samples from only three spots: at 40 and 45 miles nautical miles northeast and 142 nautical miles southeast of the wellhead.

About 15 miles east of the oil well, scientists found a distinct layer: a cloudy patch of oil 22 miles wide and 6 miles long, 30 meters thick, and about a quarter-mile beneath the surface.

They also found the Pelican's layer, about a mile deep, but it became too diffuse to track.

"You have to measure it chemically because you can't see it," he said.

The undissolved microndroplets were collected using specialized microscopic filters, showing up as light brown, circular marks.

NOAA confirmed the findings but said the concentrations of hydrocarbons were very low, in the range of less than 0.5 parts per million.

So is it harmful?

The Environmental Protection Agency says no, Hollander said. "The environmental biologist or chemist would say it's not just about concentration,'' he added. "It's about how much water with those concentrations are flowing by you. It's how long you are being by those low concentrations."

"This low concentration water may be affecting you for years and years."

* * *

The mission behind them, USF scientists keyed in on the hard part: tying the micron-sized hydrocarbons to BP's crude oil.

The oil cloud could have come from a few sources, including natural oil seeps, dispersed surface oil or other leaking rigs.

Hollander is pretty sure it's from the Deepwater Horizon, but won't be positive until he matches them with a technique he likens to chemical fingerprinting.

Molecular and isotopic fingerprinting, Hollander said, examines the distribution and the chemistry of the hydrocarbon molecule.

"It's a process of elimination," he said. "The idea is that if you're 99 percent convinced, you have to be 100 percent certain."

And it's not just for the science. Millions of dollars in research money is on the line. If the oil is not from BP's well, BP won't pay for the research.

So getting a sample of BP's crude is important.

He's still waiting.

Link