Are environmental risk estimations linked to the actual environmental impact? Application to an oil handling facility (NE Spain)

Valdor, Paloma F.; Puente, Araceli; Gómez, Aina G.; Ondiviela, Bárbara; Juanes, J. A.

Are environmental risk estimations linked to the actual environmental impact? Application to an oil handling facility (NE Spain)

2017

Valdor, Paloma F. | Puente, Araceli | Gómez, Aina G. | Ondiviela, Bárbara | Juanes, J. A. (José A.)

The environmental risk analysis of aquatic systems includes the evaluation of the likelihood that adverse ecological effects may occur as a result of exposure to one or more stressors. In harbor areas, pollution is provided by a complex mixture of substances with different levels of toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation, which complicates the hazards characterization and their multiple effects. A study of the relationship between the environmental impact and the environmental risk assessment at a specific isolated oil handling facility was undertaken. The environmental risk of the oil handling facility, considering the consequences of specific pollutants, was estimated and the associated environmental impact was quantified based on a ‘weights of evidence’ approach. The contamination quantified at the potentially affected area around the monobuoy of Tarragona has proved to be related with environmental risk estimations but the lines of evidence obtained do not allow us to assert that the activity developed at this facility has an associated environmental impact.

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