1 In 9 feet of water, we could see hydrocarbon sediments in the 



2 waters, out to about 100 meters and then, by 300 meters, we were down to 



3 ■ background again. 



4 In terms of metals, again, a concern is you are introducing-- 



5 A PARTICIPANT: 100 meters. 



6 DR. BUTMAN: What kind of volume was that? 



7 DR. NEFF: That was a couple thousand barrels a day, a thousand a 



8 day, so it wasn't a. big discharge. I mean, you can get up to a hundred 



9 thousand in some of these, but this was a fairly small discharge. 



10 As I say, in-shore, since the mid-1940s, it had been discharging 



11 from this one location; off-shore, it was 5 years at that location, 



12 multiple well . 



13 In terms of the metals, we looked for metals and we had no 



14 elevations above background in any metals; however, there was a very 



15 high background of barium in these locations and we have no idea whether 



16 that was because--if you've been to the Gulf of Mexico, especially along 



17 the Louisiana coast, there are thousands of platforms. 



18 It could be a general area-wide thing, but we are talking about 



19 background levels of barium of a thousand parts per million or higher. 



20 There were no gradients around the platform. That was the only metal 



21 that was elevated above what we predicted would be there; whereas, all 



22 the other metals were basically normal for the general Gulf of Mexico in 



23 shore sediment. 



24 MR. LANE: One time there was concern expressed in the Gulf 



25 because of produced water and the radionuclides contained in produced 



26 waters. Is there any literature to support that as a legitimate 



27 concern? 



28 DR. NEFF: Well, radium-226 and -224 are the primary radioisotopes 



29 in produced water. They are typical of geologic waters of all kinds. 



30 Hydrothermal water also has elevated levels. They come from natural 



31 radiodecay in fossil deposits. There is a relationship between the 



32 salinity and the radium. 



33 The maximum I have seen is about a thousand-fold above the normal 



34 radium concentration in sea water, and this is work done by Reed in the 



264 



