The Athabasca Oil Sands are one of four natural oil sands deposits in Northern Alberta, Canada. As a number of new mines are planned in the area, there is a need to establish background levels of natural hydrocarbon release prior to these developments. To this end, various environmental samples were taken from selected tributaries in the oil sands region of the Athabasca River Basin and analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their alkylated analogues. Samples were collected over 3 years (1998±2000) to provide an increased understanding of the spatial distribution, nature and extent of natural hydrocarbon release to the environment. Results indicated that levels of total PAHs were elevated in the tributaries (up to 34.7 mg/g) compared to the main stem Athabasca River (52 mg/g). As expected, samples from the oil sands deposits contained the greatest amounts of PAHs and alkylated PAHs. Pro®les of the alkylated PAH distributions were very similar, indicating that all the samples tested were from a common petrogenic source.# 2001 AEHS
The Athabasca Oil Sands is one of the four natural oil sands deposits in Northern Alberta, Canada, and are by far the largest oil sand deposit in North America, covering an area of 46,000 km2. Sediment samples were collected from the bed and bank of several tributaries that have naturally occurring exposures of oil sand material. Oil sand deposited along the lower Athabasca River, more than 100 km downstream of naturally occurring oil sand exposures, were also sampled. The levels of alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in samples collected from these various locations ranged from not detected to almost 50 ppm. Using dibenzothiophene/chrysene (C2/D2 vs. C3/D3) double ratio plots, it is possible to approximate the relative degree of degradation or weathering of the PAHs from these various sediment deposits along the lower Athabasca River and its tributaries. Similarly a plot of dibenzothiophene/phenanthrene (D2/P2 vs. D3/P3) indicate the possible origins of the oil. A combination of these plots, D3/P3 vs. D3/C3, was particularly useful in identifying weathering characteristics of different sources of the oil. Comparison of alkylated PAH distributions between the lower Athabasca River and the tributaries show slight differences consistent with different petrogenic sources and/or different weathering patterns.
A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method for the determination of bromobuterol, cimaterol, clenbuterol, clenpenterol, hydroxymethylclenbuterol, isoxsuprine, mabuterol, ractopamine, ritrodrine, salbutamol, terbutaline, and tulobuterol residues in bovine liver and retina is reported. This procedure uses enzymatic digestion, liquid–liquid extraction, and cleanup on Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction cartridges, followed by determination of the residues by LC-tandem quadrupole MS using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization in the positive ion mode. Overall average recoveries ranged from 23 to 76% for liver and 34 to 77% for retina. The mean values for samples fortified at levels between 0.5–2.0 μg/kg (liver) and 5–20 μg/kg (retina) agreed within 98–118% of the spiked levels, with coefficients of variation ranging from 6 to 20%. The decision limits, CCα, ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 μg/kg for liver, 1–3 μg/kg for retina, and detection capabilities, CCβ, from 0.2–0.5 μg/kg for liver and 2–5 μg/kg for retina.
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