MC252 Deepwater Horizon Data Management

National oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA)

Exa was selected as the primary data manager for stakeholders impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Under the auspices of NOAA, Exa was responsible for processing laboratory EDDs and field data collected in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas analyzed for chemistry or toxicity. Over a period of 6 years, Exa integrated sediment, soil, and tissue chemistry results collected from the response effort (EPA and state stakeholders), fisheries information, as well as data collected to support the NRDA process. Exa built a library of templates and routines to automate the import, QAQC, and integration of field and laboratory data. Due to the high level of legal scrutiny of this data, Exa worked with all data providers to ensure the highest quality data.

The data managed by Exa included:

• results from high-resolution CTD casts that captured water quality information

• core and grab data from sediments

• a wide variety of tissue data from fish, mammals, amphibians, and other biota

• results for a variety of other matrices collected via innovative sample approaches.

Complexities of the project included maintaining a master sample database to be utilized by multiple parties with different interests; cross-referencing paired samples collected by different entities; ensuring accuracy in sample location and matrix; as well as managing a flood of incoming data expeditiously and accurately. Exa managed the data in Oracle™ MySQL and provided updated versions of the data to support NOAA’s DIVER application.