Age Dating Heating-Oil Releases, Part 1. Heating-Oil Composition and Subsurface Weathering

Abstract

Releases of no. 2 heating oil are a serious threat to groundwater resources throughout much of the world. Because of the significant remediation costs for heating-oil spills, insurance carriers and associated law firms often request information on release time frames. A semi-quantitative age-dating procedure is proposed that incorporates factors such as site history, petroleum composition and weathering, environmental conditions, extent of contamination and the condition of the underground tank. The procedure uses the principles of petroleum chemistry and compares them to the known site-specific environmental conditions. Each contamination case is specific unto itself and a universal approach, such as a mathematical equation, is not proper because it cannot incorporate all the needed parameters. Furthermore, the use of only petroleum chemistry as an age-dating criterion is inadequate. Accordingly, the investigator will need to evaluate all factors, such as environmental conditions, petroleum chemistry, underground tank condition, site history and the extent of contamination, and assess the importance of each, prior to providing an age-date opinion.

Keywords:

• age-dating techniques
• groundwater contamination
• environmental litigation
• heating oil