1 Jerry can certainly expand on this, because we have asked him to 



2 look at this a lot, but as far as any kind of metal uptake, significant 



3 amount of bio-accumulation, bio-magnification, to our knowledge, doesn't 



4 exist. We don't see any significant accumulation. 



5 Most of the metals that are present in drilling discharges are 



6 highly unsoluble metals, and that includes barium sulfate because the 



7 sulfate ion is in the sea water. Even if you get some way to release 



8 the barium, because you have a sulfate ion there, you are still back 



9 immediately to the barium sulfate. 



10 The other metals are generally sulfides, mercuric sulfide, 



11 cadmium; where there is some release from cadmium, more so than mercury, 



12 again, it is small. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to get 



13 any kind of mercury to dissolve. 



14 I think the organic materials that are generated from the mud are 



15 at very low concentrations. You can't detect those in sediments. We 



16 are unable to detect those in sediments. Battelle did some work where 



17 they might be able to detect some, but again, the only tracer we've been 



18 able to use very efficiently at all is barium. That's because it is 



19 used in high concentrations. 



20 You will discharge quantities of solids that you will discharge 



21 from a Mid-Atlantic well or a North Atlantic well like we're talking 



22 about here have been in the range of 2 to 3 thousand tons. It is 



23 predominantly--about one-half of that would be drill solids and one-half 



24 of that would be principally ferrite and clay, with small amounts of 



25 lignins, and that would be the principal ingredient. 



26 Those are the kinds of things that we are looking at. I think it 



27 is highly important that we focus in a little bit on the quantities of 



28 materials that are discharged. It sounds like a lot, but when you 



29 consider them up against the natural sedimentation rate, these numbers 



30 are very, very small. It's almost immeasurable. 



31 We were able to see, only measuring very close to the well site, 



32 we were able to get stuff caught in sediment traps. The highest levels 



33 we saw were maybe 10 percent of what was the natural sedimentation rate. 



34 When you got 3,000 meters or more away, it was down to less than 1 



234 



