Geochemical Fingerprinting pf Oil-Impacted Soil and Water Samples In Some Selected Areas in the Niger Delta

With over 50 years of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta, there has been an increasing rate of environmental degradation due to hydrocarbon pollution. This study is aimed at tracing the sources of the oil spills and the distribution of pollutants in selected communities in the Niger Delta using geo-chemical techniques. A total of sixteen samples made up of ten crude oil-impacted soil samples taken at a depth of 30 cm and six water samples (two from boreholes, two from burrow pits and two from surface water – one from a river and the other from rain harvest as control) were collected. The identification and quantification of aliphatic hydrocarbons (AHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the samples were performed with an Agilent 7890B gas chromatography flame ionisation detector (GCFID). The AHs including pristane and phytane, together with seventeen priority PAHs, were identified. The values of AHs and PAHs in the water samples ranged from 0.13 mg/l to 5.78 mg/l and 0.09 mg/l to 1.109 mg/l, respectively, while that for the soil samples ranged from 22.52 mg/kg to 929.44 mg/kg and 10.544 mg/kg to 16.879 mg/kg, respectively.