ANALYTICAL DOCUMENTATION OF SPILLS 



OF OIL AND HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES 



INTO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT 



George C. Lawler and John L. Laseter 



Center for Bio-Organic Studies 



University of New Orleans 



New Orleans, Louisiana 



INTRODUCTION 



In the Clean Water Act of 1977, which is still the primary Federal law 

 governing spills of oil and hazardous substances, Congress declared that the 

 discharger is strictly liable for a limited amount of the actual cost of clean- 

 up incurred by the United States (Fidel I and DuBey 1978). What is significant 

 about this particular environmental law is that for the first time the cleanup 

 costs included not only the cost of removal of the spilled substance but also 

 any expenses incurred by the Federal or State Governments in the restoration 

 and/or replacement of natural resources damaged by the spill. Even though 

 this law removed the necessity of proving negligence to establish liability, 

 the Federal and State Governments still must prove causation and establish 

 valuation. That is, they as claimants have to assess any environmental damage 

 that was caused by the spill, and then assign a dollar value to offset the 

 cleanup and restoration costs. 



The need to assess environmental damage coupled with the likelihood that 

 the scientific data gathered during the assessment process will eventually be 

 used in court has affected, and will continue to affect, how spills of oil and 

 hazardous substances are handled. It is true that accurate documentations of 

 valid scientific observations lend themselves to use as legal evidence but it 

 is not always true that good science makes good law. For instance, few labor- 

 atories would routinely establish a "chain of custody" for samples brought in 

 for analysis if the data generated from those samples were not to be used in 

 litigation. 



In this paper we will address the problem of analytical documentation of 

 spills in a manner that is both scientifically valid and legally acceptable. 

 Since there are numerous analytical methods that can be employed at any par- 

 ticular spill, few references will be made to specific analytical techniques. 

 It is hoped that the general documentation procedures and sample handling 

 techniques described will be applicable to most, if not all, analytical tech- 

 niques currently in use. 



The analytical documentation scheme presented herein is not intended to 

 be the definitive work on the analytical investigation of a spill. It is, 

 however, presented as a stand-alone analytical documentation procedure that 

 can be and should be coordinated with biological documentation procedures so 



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