Effort launched to adapt ephemeral stream bioassessment tools for oil spill monitoring

SCCWRP and its partners have kicked off a study examining whether bioassessment tools being developed to assess the health of ephemeral streams also can be used to assess ecological damage from oil spills in California.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Team is interested in adapting

the tools for oil spill monitoring because they have the potential to provide a quantitative basis for assessing environmental damage and levying appropriate penalties.

Oil spills are becoming increasingly common in dry streambeds in California as a result of local petroleum production and transportation activities.

The study, which kicked off in March, involves collecting terrestrial arthropods and bryophytes from reference sites and oil spill sites, then determining whether community structure and composition are altered by oil spills.