Nov 27, 2007 7:31 pm US/Pacific
Oil Spill Testing Shows Toxic Chemicals
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
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Chris Molina of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, left, and a volunteer look for pieces of tar and oil residue during clean up at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Monday, Nov. 12, 2007.
AP
Just how toxic is the oil that spilled into the Bay?
We tested for toxic chemicals that many experts told us are compounds of much concern when it comes to the environment.
We wanted to know, just what was in that oil?
Our sample was a tar ball scooped from the Bay waters. Thick, black and smelly.
And as Denny Larson of the environmental watchdog group Global Community Monitor told us, no doubt full of toxins.
"It's basically toxic waste," Larson said.
We wanted to see for ourselves, so with Larson's help we packaged up that tar ball and sent it to a lab. Now, the report is in.
"I have to say that the levels are higher than I thought they would be," Larson said.
The lab tested for a group of toxic chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and what did they turn up?
High levels of three: Pyrene, at 1100 parts per million, phenanthrene, at 2000 parts per million, and another called two-methylnaphthalene, at 1800 parts per million. Those numbers may not mean much to you, but to environmentalists like Larson, it's a lot.
One top government scientist who studies oil spills told us the concentrations indicate that bunker fuel oil is "loaded" with those toxins.
"You're talking about some extremely toxic stuff that is not going to just go away overnight," Larson said.
And that's what concerns people like this scientist at San Francisco's Baykeeper.
"Your test results indicate that the bunker fuel that spilled into the bay this time did have ingredients in it that are really bad for aquatic organisms," Jennifer Kovecses said.
Although we now have more answers about the oil itself, its long-term effect on all of the Bay's wildlife is still in question.
"I am worried that there are parts of the ecosystem that won't be addressed in terms of how much damage there's been done," Kovecses said.
Researches tell CBS those chemicals are carcinogenic. Everyone should avoid getting it on their skin.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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