[en] Evaluating the extent of the damage to natural resources after a major oil spill, such as the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, requires the analysis of thousands of samples of sediment and biota. Therefore, the use of rapid, low-cost analytical methods-generally known as screening methods-to estimate concentrations of petroleum-related aromatic compounds in samples is vitally important to the production of timely information in an emergency response. These screening procedures can rapidly process large numbers of samples to yield semiquantitative estimates of contaminant and allow ranking of samples by degree of contamination. Thus, the most contaminated samples can be located rapidly by screening, and detailed analyses; for example, gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry, (GC/MS) can be focused on selected samples to confirm the presence of contaminants. Screening methods were developed for sediments, bile, and tissue. Petroleum-related aromatics are screened for in sediments using size-exclusion HPLC. Aromatic metabolites are screened for in bile and tissue of fish by reversed-phase HPLC with fluorescence detection