THE COAST GUARD'S FORENSIC OIL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM

ABSTRACT The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), as amended in 1972, tasks the Coast Guard with development of “procedures and techniques to be employed in identifying…. oil and hazardous substances….” In carrying out this portion of the service's environmental mandate, the Coast Guard Research and Development Center has developed first generation laboratory and field systems for the forensic identification and classification of oil spills. The laboratory system utilizes four independent analytical techniques (infrared and fluorescence spectroscopy, gas and thin-layer chromatography) to match spill samples with suspected sources, while the field system utilizes two analytical techniques (fluorescence spectroscopy and thin-layer chromatography). The field system is designed to give each Captain of the Port or Marine Safety Office the capability to rapidly identify the source of the majority of oil spills, or in more difficult cases to provide sufficient information to justify the collection of additional samples for more detailed analysis by the laboratory system.