Fingerprinting and age-dating of gasoline releases - A case study

Several techniques are available to forensic researchers to age-date and fingerprint gasoline releases to the environment. These techniques include the use of isotopes, chemical ratios, and groundwater flow rates, among many others. A case study is presented which describes the use of these methods congruently to assess the time frame of a gasoline release and assess whether or not more than one release had occurred. The principles discussed herein can be used to estimate the age(s) of subsurface gasoline releases in the 50 United States and the U.S. Territories in the Caribbean.