The evaluation of the environmental impacts resulting from an oil spill and fire at the West Hackberry Strategic Petroleum Reserve Complex was particularly challenging. The fire and spill resulted in two distinctive types of chemical releases into the environment. The spill released a large quantity of Arabian light crude oil into an area that had been exposed to Louisiana sweet crude oil during 40 years of production. The fire produced significant quantities of pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that were dispersed over a large area by wind. New methods were developed to identify samples, and consequently the areas, that were affected by these releases. Samples of sediment affected by the oil spill were distinguished from nonaffected samples by comparing the ratios of the alkyl phenanthrenes to the alkyl dibenzothiophenes (C1, C2, and C3) in a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of the extractable hydrocarbons. These ratios effectively identified affected sediment even when the samples had been exposed to the environment for more than a year. Contamination from the pyrogenic products of the fire was identified by the elevated quantities of fluoranthene and pyrene in affected samples. Foliage, soil, and sediment samples were collected quarterly for the year following the incident and were analyzed by the combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method. Impact from the fire was detected in foliage and soil samples collected several miles downwind from the incident.

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