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Professionalizing Oil Spill Response in the
21st Century…Quality over Quantity
By: Joel Hogue, PresidentElemental Services & Consulting,
Inc. (ESCO)
[email protected]
740.815.9660Posted: April 6, 2014
Revised: January 9, 2015
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines professionalize as making
(an activity) into a job that requiresspecial education,
training, or skill. For oil spill response in the 21
st century, professionalization will be
essential to save time, money, environmental impact and
reputations.
First, let’s establish a baseline of basic knowledge; take a few
minutes to answer these basic oil spillquestions:
1. What is the escape velocity of oil past boom in water?2. What
is the maximum booming angle in a river with a 2 knot current?
3. How much boom and/or rope is needed to boom a river 1,000
feet wide with a velocity of 2 knots?4. What is the minimum
rope/anchor point strength for 500 feet river width with a 12 inch
boom skirtin a 2 knot river (assume at 20° boom catenary)?
5. True or false: When considering line angles around anchor
points (trees, columns, etc.) no angleshould exceed 90°.
6. What is the most important consideration when determining oil
skimmer effectiveness?7. You calculate an underflow dam requires a
single 24 inch pipe to carry the flow and velocity of a
stream, but the only pipe you have available is 6 inch pipe. How
many 6 inch pipes would berequired to carry the flow and
velocity?
8. According to USCG, what is the speed of oil on water when
driven only by the wind (wind vectordrift)?
9. When using on water anchors (i.e. Danforth™ type) for
booming, in order to achieve 100%holding power, what is the minimum
line length for the anchor (based on water depth)?
10. True or false: According to NOAA, containment booming is
indicated for gasoline spills.
These are basic questions that rely on basic math and science
principles to implement. Look at almostany public or private
responder website or look at the news coverage of oil spills and
you will see nearlyevery incident shows incorrectly placed boom,
inappropriate use of sorbent materials, inadequateskimmer
utilization and much more that impacts a project’s time to
complete, cost, environmental impactand the reputation of Owners
and responders. Contrary to what some may say, there are no “rules
ofthumb” in spill planning and response – only math and
science.
Granted, there is basic education (knowledge) and training
(skills) that is required to understand anddetermine some of
answers above – which is the point. For decades, experience (i.e.
quantity) has beentouted as superior to competence (i.e.
quality) when describing qualifications by public and
privateresponders alike. Moving forward in the 21
st century will require that all oil spill responders have
at least a
basic knowledge and specific skills to work safely, minimize and
eliminate environmental impact, not
create additional impact and reduce the time and cost of
restoring a site following an oil spill.
There is a scientific basis for nearly every aspect of oil spill
response from boom deployment throughresponse methods in various
habitats. Not only is this information based in science, thereby
making worksafer, faster and more effective, it is defensible by
those implementing the countermeasures and cleanup.For example,
there is no scientific explanation for responders walking through
oil and carrying it down intothe sediments on their boots impacting
a previously non-impacted habitat, yet it happens all too
often.
(Continued)
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]
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There are many common themes with responders (public and
private) across the US, including:
1. Many responders have a poor level of readiness. If an oil
spill occurs on a river with a 2 knotcurrent (3.4 feet/second), in
just 10 minutes the spill has moved 2,025 feet down river. In
60minutes, it will have traveled 12,152 feet – that’s over 2 miles!
In spill response, time ismoney and responder readiness is critical
to minimizing environmental impact and cleanupcosts. Many
responders must gather needed supplies and equipment and load them
beforedeployment, taking valuable time that only serves to increase
a spills impact area.Furthermore, most responders rely on other
contractors to assist them when a spill occurs asa subcontractor –
but think about this: Most responders are okay with their level of
readiness
– because they can count on subcontractors; However,
THEY are the subs others arecounting on as well; this has led
to a “we’ll get there when we get there” attitude instead of
an“emergency response attitude.”
2. Many responders have the wrong type, size and quantity of
boom for their response area.Many have boom without a tensioning
member that will prohibit the appropriate use of theboom in fast
water (more than one-half knot). In addition to boom deployment at
the wrongangle, oil will entrain if the boom draft is more than
about 20 percent of the channel depthbeing boomed (i.e. if the
channel being boomed is two feet deep, boom draft must be lessthan
4.8 inches) – this is known as boom undercut and it is rarely
considered, especially with
inland and upland spills. Sadly, most responders don’t have
enough boom for even a singlelocation within their response
area.
3. Lack of equipment. Many responders have very few options in
their response “tool box.” Looking only at anchor systems,
most responders don’t have more than one type of anchorsystem, let
alone a single adequate anchor system for their response area. Most
don’t haveon-water anchors of sufficient quantity, size or type.
Additionally, most responders don’t havepulleys, shackles, nylon
straps, a means to adjust boom, snap hooks, etc. – basic
equipmentthat may be needed to adequately respond to and contain an
oil spill.
4. Another deficit is rope for anchoring and other uses. Most
responders don’t have sufficienttype, size or quantity of rope to
adequately anchor boom, install ferry systems or performother
tasks. Some responders even use “life safety rope” for boom
anchoring.
5. Most responders have only one skimmer – while some have none.
Different skimmers aredesigned for different habitats and different
oils. Having only one skimmer slows recovery ofoil significantly
increasing environmental impact and increasing project costs.
6. Most responders (public and private) have no formal
education or training in oil spill responseand cleanup. Many cite
HAZWOPER as oil spill training and claim to be “extensively
trained.”There are groups who provide oil spill specific education
and training, yet most respondersrely on “on the job (OTJ)”
training that just perpetuates the tactics that haven’t worked
andcontinue to create additional environmental impact.
This is not intended to be critical of individual responders,
but rather to illustrate the need for specificeducation and
training for both public and private oil spill responders.
A cursory review of oil spill response, booming, damming,
recovery, etc. oil spill presentations onlineshow many presenters
(public and private) simply cut and paste photos, drawings and
text from otherpresentations as well as from manuals and books and
simply rehash those ideas, tactics and techniquesthat haven’t
worked. These presentations as well as “training” classes are
just repeated time and timeagain with no rationale given for
anything presented.
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Charles Kettering, noted inventor, engineer, founder of Delco,
and head of research at General Motors inthe early to mid-20
th century stated, “Knowing is not understanding. There is
a great difference between
knowing and understanding; you can know a lot about something
and not really understand it.” It is thislack of understanding of
even basic spill response techniques and tactics that has created a
fertilebreeding ground for many well-intentioned, but misguided
“experts.” The problem is not responsetechnology (boom,
skimmers, etc.); it’s the inappropriate implementation of the
technology – which isbased on a lack of education and training.
It’s time to professionalize oil spill response and ensure
responders are adequately educated and trained
in oil spill specific knowledge and skills. In doing so, worker
safety will be improved, environmental impact
will be significantly reduced, response times reduced and
responders will have more effective
containment and recovery of oil thereby saving time, money,
environmental impact and reputations.
Curious about the answers to the above questions?
1. 0.7 knots (USCG) 2. 20.8°3. 2,816 feet4. 19,321 pounds
for each anchor point (rounded) (does not include
debris load)(based on 20°
boom catenary) 5. True, this minimizes forces on each side
of the anchor – a 30° anchor angle distributes 51.8% ofthe load to
each side of the anchor. Angles greater than 120° distribute 100%
and more the loadto each side of the anchor
6. Oil Encounter Rate (If there isn’t enough oil encountering
the skimmer, too much water ispotentially recovered and if there is
too much oil encountering the skimmer, entrainment ordrainage loss
may occur)
7. 16 (it’s all about the area of a circle) 8. 3.5% of wind
speed (USCG) (Environment Canada ranges from 1% to 6%) 9. 10
times the water depth will give 100% holding power (10:1) 10.
False, containment booming of gasoline spills is not indicated for
any habitat
Curious about how ESCO is improving oil spill response with our
Tactical Response Plans, Oil Spill Job Aids, new equipment and
techniques for containment, anchoring and recovery and more – check
us outat www.escoinfo.com.
© 2014 Elemental Services & Consulting, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Elemental Services & Consul ting,
[email protected]
740.815.9660
http://www.escoinfo.com/http://www.escoinfo.com/http://www.escoinfo.com/http://www.escoinfo.com/
