| Popis: |
During the winter of 1981/82, a fire and a series of equipment failures at the Suncor surface mining oil sands and bitumen upgrading plant, north of Ft. McMurray, Alberta, resulted in the release of more than 50 tons of oil (over several weeks) to the Athabasca River, under ice cover. A sample of oil collected from the plant's wastewater pond was subjected to exhaustive analysis to determine the presence of water soluble compounds likely to be harmful to fish or the Athabasca River fishery. Chemical characterization studies of the water soluble components were carried out using high pressure liquid chromatography, high resolution gas chromatography, high resolution gas chromatography - low resolution mass spectrometry and high resolution mass spectrometry. Analyses obtained for the base/neutral water soluble components revealed a very complex mixture of compounds. Further analytical work focused upon the identification of single ring aromatics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles, and polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles. These classes include compounds known to be toxic and/or susceptible to bioaccumulation by fish. Aromatic compounds were found to predominate in the water soluble fraction. This is consistent with findings obtained for weathered oil/water samples. Compounds which were identified and absolutely confirmed include alkylated benzenes, alkylated benzothiophenes, and alkylated dibenzothiophenes. Compounds which were identified, but not taken to ultimate confirmation, included alkyl-substituted analogues of furan, indan, quinoline, monocycloalkanes, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, monocycloketones, ketones and ketenes. |
