Abstract: The acute toxicity of oil spill dispersants -GoldCrew and Biosolve was monitored in seawater obtained from Bonny Estuary in Rivers state, Nigeria. Toxicity of dispersants was assessed using Nitrobacter and Thiobacillus as test organisms using mortality as index in a 96-hour exposure period. There was an increase in percentage mortality with increasing concentration of the toxicants and increasing contact time. The toxicity of the dispersants was in decreasing order of GoldCrew>Biosolve. The sensitivity trend for the test organisms showed a decreasing order; Thiobacillus>Nitrobacter sp. The 96hour–LC50GoldCrew on these test organisms were 0.05 and 0.0006ppt respectively while that of Biosolve were 0.07 and 0.001ppt respectively.Nitrobacter is responsible for........
[1]. Cheesbrough, M. (2004). District Laboratory Practice in Tropical Countries, Part 2. Cambridge University Press, U. K.: 76 – 85.
[2]. Colwell, R. R., andZambruski, M. S. (1972). Method of Aquatic Microbiology, University Park Press, Baltimore.
[3]. DPR, (2002). Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN), Revised Edition 2002. Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR): 277 – 288.
[4]. Fingas, M., Fieldhouse, B. and Mullin, J (1995). Water in oil emulsions: How they are formed and broken. International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 1995(1): 829 – 830.
[5]. Holt, J. G., Krieg, N. R., Sneath, P. H. A., Stanley, J. T. and Williams, S. T. (eds). (1994). Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. The Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, USA: 566 – 568.
