Produced water toxicity tests accurately measure the produced water toxicity in marine environments?
Conference
·
OSTI ID:402391
- Aqua Survey, Inc., Flemington, NJ (United States)
- Argonne National Lab., Washington, DC (United States)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region VI has issued a general permit for offshore oil and gas discharges to the Gulf of Mexico that places numerical limits on whole effluent toxicity (WEI) for produced water. Recently proposed EPA general permits for other produced water discharges in Regions VI and X also include enforceable numerical limits on WET. Clearly, the industry will be conducting extensive produced water WET testing. Unfortunately, the WET test may not accurately measure the toxicity of the chemical constituents of produced water. Rather the mortality of test organisms may be attributable to (1) the high salinity of produced water, which causes salinity shock to the organisms, or (2) an ionic imbalance caused by excesses or deficiencies of one or more of seawater`s essential ions in the test chambers. Both of these effects are likely to be mitigated in actual offshore discharge settings, where the receiving water will be seawater and substantial dilution will be probable. Thus, the additional salinity of produced water will be rapidly assimilated, and the proper marine ionic balance will be quickly restored. Regulatory authorities should be aware of these factors when interpreting WET test results.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 402391
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/EA/CP--89257; CONF-9609237--4; ON: DE96014396
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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