in the granular pellets, the insoluble fraction, which is most probably 

 excreted. Based on this information, the investigators hypothesize that 

 almost all of the barium taken up is in the insoluble, barium sulphate form. 

 Very little was found in the soluble fraction. 



TEXAS 



The Texas wellsite, examined in 1986 and 1987, is about 12 mi offshore 

 from San Antonio Bay, in about 25-m water depth. Nearly 17,000 metric tons of 

 barite were in the discharged drilling muds. A problem in this (and other 

 areas) is that there are often multiple discharge points within a development 

 field so that distributions are complicated. Some of the results showed very 

 jumbled patterns of distribution; nevertheless, it is clear that maximum 

 concentrations of metals were highest near the wells (closer than 200 m) and 

 decreased rapidly with distance. Barium was the only element that was 

 traceable beyond the first few hundred meters. Biological effects 

 attributable to bottom contamination were not detectable. 



Core samples in these shallow waters were taken by hand, by divers, for 

 both fine fraction and bulk sediment analyses. The cores show bioturbation 

 ranging up to 10-cm depth. 



ALABAMA 



Studies were done during 1987 and 1988 about 5 mi off the mouth of Mobile 

 Bay, in water depth of 12 m. (Incidentally, this location is only a few miles 

 from the area where the Army Corps of Engineers dumps in a day 6 to 7 times as 

 much dredge spoils as the amount of material the drill rig discharges in its 

 active life--about 8 to 12 months of drilling). Here the sampling was done in 

 a ring pattern at varying distances from an exploratory well on four 

 occasions: before drilling, shortly after drilling began, right after drilling 

 stopped, and 8 to 9 months later. Again, both fine and bulk analyses were 

 done. 



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