Consumption of vegetable oil has increased considerably during the last decade with a commensurate increase in accidental spills. The use of canola oil has also increased significantly. The USEPA has amended regulations governing the cleanup of oil spills to include animal fats and vegetable oils. The effects of oil spills are well known and include the coating of birds and animals, lowering the dissolved oxygen in the impacted water and other toxic effects.
Thus it would be worthwhile to know the effect of a canola oil spill on an unmixed water body and to evaluate these effects relative to oxygen depletion and aqueous toxicity. Experiments were designed to simulate three levels of canola oil spills having magnitudes of 100, 333, and 1000 gal/acre. Respirometers were employed to provide continuous measure of oxygen uptake.
For each experiment all the replicates are expected to behave in a similar manner with regard to oxygen uptake, dissolved oxygen and liquid phase toxicity. It is believed that the toxicity trend comparison to increasing oil load would be useful for further studies.