Crude Petroleum in Northwest Florida Surf Waters, Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties in Florida, 5-24-2010 to 4-4-2011

Samples of surf zone beach sand were collected to track the occurrence and degradation of alkane hydrocarbons on beaches of the West Florida Panhandle. Composite samples were air dried and extracted by standard procedures for analysis of alkanes found in the BP MC 252 well oil by GC. Alkanes in seawater were only detected during beach oiling events when mats of oil were present in the water and rapidly decreased to background levels.