Collecting groundwater samples at an oil spill site near Bemidji, MN

Dr. Mindy Erickson, Research Hydrologist with the USGS Upper Midwest Water Science Center, collects water samples for analysis of arsenic, iron, diesel range organic compounds, total organic carbon, and other constituents at the National Crude Oil Spill Fate and Natural Attenuation Research Site near Bemidji, Minnesota. Sampling results helped researchers better understand how oil spills affect groundwater chemistry long after a spill occurred. Of particular interest for that study were (1) whether common regulatory laboratory analyses provide a complete measure of organic compounds that remain in groundwater decades after an oil spill, and (2) how the degradation of spilled oil mobilizes geologic-sourced metals such as arsenic.