Discovering What Oil Spills Do to Fresh Water

North America has the largest network of energy pipelines in the world, and unfortunately periodic oil spills from pipelines do occur.

Even so, leading and authoritative sources, such as the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences, have identified gaps in our knowledge regarding the impacts of oil spills on freshwater systems.

Given the current situation, groundbreaking projects are taking place at IISD-ELA that will enhance our understanding of what happens when oil enters freshwater systems.

There are multiple aspects of this research.

First, a pilot study using three small (2-m diameter) land-based microcosms has already been completed to examine the chemical and physical behaviour of dilbit in fresh water.

Oil is a complex mixture of chemicals whose nature changes with time in the environment. These changes can affect how easily it can be cleaned up (for example, does the oil remain floating or sink?) and its potential toxicity to freshwater wildlife. This early-stage study provided important preliminary information regarding these changes in fresh water that will help to guide the later phases of the research, which will begin in 2018.

The second stage is a field study. Researchers use large enclosures (10-m diameter) placed in a lake to examine how diluted bitumen reacts in fresh water over longer periods of time. Researchers will also be directly testing changes in the oil’s toxicity to freshwater bugs, fish and amphibians.

The information from these first two studies guide a third study, where researchers will examine the most effective methods of cleaning spilled oil from shorelines. Again, only small, contained model spills in an IISD-ELA lake will be used. This study focuses on the shoreline, which is most sensitive to oil and presents the biggest difficulty in terms of cleanup efforts.

You can read more about this research into diluted bitumen and fresh water in this blog post.