FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2010
CONTACT: Robbie Wilbur
601/961-5277
MDEQ LAUNCHES NEW WEB MAP TO PROVIDE PUBLIC WITH SAMPLING RESULTS
(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) announced today a new page on their website that provides data and information that are being collected in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This map application was developed to provide the public access to the most current information available. The map is updated regularly and can be accessed at http://opcgis.deq.state.ms.us/oilspillmap/ and on the MDEQ’s oil spill response page: http://www.deq.state.ms.us/oilspill.
“We believe this new webpage will be extremely useful for our citizens concerned about the condition of our state’s waters. The MDEQ staff has been working diligently to assure that our natural resources are being protected and that we have the most up-to-date sampling results. We want to share that data with the public, and we encourage people to contact our office if they have questions about the information,” said Trudy Fisher, MDEQ Executive Director.
Locations where MDEQ and its partners have collected samples, as a result of different oil spill response activities, are displayed in the map application along with sampling results. The information represented in the web map was collected from sentinel sampling sites which are monitored on a routine schedule, from complaint investigations, and also from air and water reconnaissance activities. Water, sediment and/or biological tissue samples were collected at these sites and analyzed for constituents related to oil. Sentinel sampling sites are situated along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to check the water in the passes for the intrusion of oil into the Mississippi Sound.
Crude oil is a mixture of many chemicals that are typically grouped into categories:
· gases such as methane or natural gas,
· volatile compounds, such as benzene, toluene and xylene, which are largely responsible for the odor of gasoline,
· semi-volatile compounds such as napthalene which is the active ingredient in moth balls, and
· higher molecular weight compounds such as may be found in asphalt or tar balls.
Oil Range Organics (ORO) is a group of compounds typically found in lubricating oils. MDEQ has used ORO as a screening tool to quickly assess samples for evidence of petroleum-related contamination. The map shows the monitoring locations and associated lab results for Oil Range Organics.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Marine Resources are coordinating the State of Mississippi’s role in the preparations and response the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident.
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