Natural Resource Damage Assessment of the Shell Oil Spill at Martinez, California

Abstract

ABSTRACT On April 23, 1988 about 400,000 gallons (9,500 barrels) of San Joaquin Valley crude oil were accidentally released from the Shell Oil Company Martinez Manufacturing Complex. The oil flowed into Peyton Slough, Suisun Bay, and Carquinez Strait of the San Francisco Bay system. Approximately one week after the oil spill, discussions on assessing the injury to natural resources were initiated between Shell and the federal and state agencies that were trustees of the affected resources. At this time, the trustees and Shell agreed that a single cooperative study should be conducted, managed by a contractor acceptable to all concerned parties. The lead trustee was the California Department of Fish and Game. However, within one month after the spill, the Attorney General's office of the State of California assumed responsibility for the damage assessment. Subsequently, legal considerations and constraints imposed by the state Attorney General's office prevented active participation in the study by the agencies. The work agreed upon included video and aerial photographic surveys, and mapping of the areas affected by the spill; a study of fish and macroinvertebrate abundance and distribution; hydrocarbon analyses of fish and clam tissue; a comparison of the effects of oil on marsh vegetation; a survey of the distribution and abundance of the benthos; an ambient aquatic toxicity study; a survey of endangered species (birds and mammals); chemical analyses of the sediment and water; chemical and physical characterizations of San Joaquin Valley crude oil; and a study of the weathering of the oil. A preliminary study to estimate natural resource damages (economic analysis) also was conducted.</jats:p