title: Oil spill environmental forensics: the Hebei Spirit oil spill case.
abstract: After the Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS) in December 2007, mixtures of three types of Middle East crude oil (total 12,547 kL) were stranded along 375 km of coastline in Western Korea. Emergency responses together with 1.3 million volunteers' activity rapidly removed ca. 20% of spilled oil but the lingering oils have been found along the heavily impacted shorelines for more than 4 years. The HSOS was the worst oil spill case in Republic of Korea, and there were many issues and lessons to be shared. In this study, we summarized some of the oil spill environmental forensic issues that were raised after the HSOS. Rapid screening using on-site measurement, long-term monitoring of multimedia, fingerprinting challenges and evaluation of the extent of the submerged oil were introduced, which supported decision making process of oil spill cleanup, mitigation of debates among stakeholders and provided scientific backgrounds for reasonable compensation.
authors.affiliation: Oil and POPs Research Group, South Sea Branch,  KORDI , Geoje, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Un Hyuk
authors.initials: UH
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.forename: Moonkoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Sunghwan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Won Joon
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Shim
mesh_terms: D044707:Forensic Sciences; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D056910:Republic of Korea; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical