biogeochemistry. The latter is the category encompassing the three fossil fuel 
pollution investigations summarized in this paper. Each investigation is, or will 
be, the subject of one or more papers, and the reader is referred to these papers 
for details and further discussion. Biogeochemical research delves into the 
sources, distributions, pathways of transfer, reactions, intermittent and 
ultimate fates of pollutants in the environment. 
The incorporation of fossil fuel hydrocarbons into surface sediments as a 
result of oil spills or chronic effluent releases (2, 6, 15), and the resulting 
long-term slow (years) chemical and biochemical removal processes, was a 
major finding of oil pollution research between 1969 and 1974. An important 
concern evolving from these findings was the question of the distribution and 
long-term fate of fossil fuel hydrocarbons in surface sediments. The fossil fuel 
components causing the greatest concern were the aromatic hydrocarbons, 
although recent research has documented that nitrogen containing compounds 
such as p-toluidines and degradation products such as phenalene-l-one, are also 
very toxic to certain marine species (18, 19). Thus, there was a need for 
investigations of aromatic hydrocarbons in surface sediments. This led to a 
search for a means to accurately measure individual aromatic hydrocarbons at 
the 1 to 100 x 10"^ g/g dry weight concentration level in sediments. 
Quantitative gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or mass fragmentography 
has evolved as one of the more discriminating and sensitive methods to apply 
to this problem (10, 11, 13). 
Our quantitative GC-mass fragmentographic method is described in detail in 
another paper (8). We have determined the precision of the method as 2 to 3% 
based on repeated injections of standard aromatic hydrocarbons for 50 x 10"^ 
g and about 12% for 1 x 10'^ g. This compares favorably with quantitative gas 
chromatographic determinations. However, the GC-MF technique has the very 
powerful added advantage of allowing mass spectrum to be scanned to insure 
more complete identification of the compounds measured. A comparison of 
GC-MF determination of the weight percent of selected aromatic hydrocarbons 
in the API reference No. 2 fuel oil with earlier GC measurements (17) is 
presented in Table 6-1. We think that the agreement is quite good. We have 
applied this technique to measuring selected aromatic hydrocarbons in marsh 
sediments exposed to a No. 2 fuel oil spill. 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
Bouchard No. 65 Oil Spill—October, 1974 
On October 12, 1975 the Bouchard Barge No. 65 spilled No. 2 fuel oil into 
Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. A small amount of this oil entered Windsor Cove 
69 
