OIL SPILL STRATEGY IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY: NEW TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN MECHANICAL SPILL RESPONSE

1989 ◽  
Vol 1989 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-271
Author(s):  
Klaus Schroh
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Wadden Sea ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Wave Heights ◽  
And Control

ABSTRACT Prevention and control of oil spills in the Federal Republic of Germany are based on an agreement between the federal government and the four coastal states. Comprehensive procurement and reconstruction programs for oil pollution personnel and equipment are realized and finalized within two years. The Federal Minister for Research and Technology contributed substantially toward using advanced oil spill response techniques at sea and for shoreline cleanup. Since the particular ecological conditions of the Wadden Sea on the German coastline greatly limit dispersant application, main emphasis was given to developing recovery systems meeting the following requirements:An extended scope of mechanical application at sea, for wave heights exceeding 1.2 m (4 feet)New types of recovery vessels with multiple functions, like bunkering services and floating reception facilitiesOil recovery with self-driven vessels for shallow waters close to the coastline and embankmentsDesign of an amphibious chain-driven vehicle for oil recovery in Wadden Sea areas. With the integration of these new types of oil recovery vessels or systems the German recovery fleet now consists of 6 high-sea-going vessels and 14 recovery vessel devices for shoreline cleanup.

International Cooperation in Oil Spill Response

1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Nichols ◽  
T. H. Moller
Keyword(s):  
International Cooperation ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
International Convention ◽  
Specialized Equipment ◽  
Favorable Weather

ABSTRACT Effective response to a major marine oil spill occasionally calls for specialized equipment, personnel, and expertise that is beyond the capability of the country or company concerned. In recognition of this fact, a new International Convention on International Cooperation in Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response has been developed under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization. There is already considerable potential for international cooperation through existing regional conventions and agreements, and other less formal arrangements. This cooperation involves governmental agencies, the oil and shipping industries, commercial companies, insurers, intergovernmental organizations, and international industry organizations. This will be illustrated by reference to two recent major oil spills in Europe where this international cooperation proved very successful. The first involved the cleanup of some 15,000 metric tons of heavy crude oil that impacted the holiday island of Porto Santo in the Madeiran archipelago. Cooperation among the Portuguese government, The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, the tanker's oil pollution insurer, the Commission of the European Communities, and the governments of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom resulted in the rapid provision of specialized equipment and associated personnel to deal with the major shoreline contamination. The second incident, involving a spill of waste oil from a tanker in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Sweden, resulted in the rapid mobilization of cleanup resources from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the U.S.S.R. under the terms of the Helsinki Convention. During favorable weather conditions, the combined forces of the five countries were successful in recovering a high percentage of the oil at sea, with the result that the contamination of shorelines was minimal.

scholarly journals The Marine Salvage Industry: Proven in Preventing Oil Spills

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 684710
Author(s):  
Jim Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
New Policies ◽  
The U.S

Abstract The marine salvage industry plays a vital role in protecting the marine environment. Governments, industry and the public, worldwide, now place environmental protection as the driving objective, second only to the safety of life, during a marine casualty response operation. Recognizing over 20 years after the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that the effectiveness of mechanical on-water oil recovery remains at only about 10 to 25 percent while the international salvage industry annually prevents over a million tons of pollutants from reaching the world's oceans, ten years ago the United States began implementing a series of comprehensive salvage and marine firefighting regulations in an effort to improve the nation's environmental protection regime. These regulations specify desired response timeframes for emergency salvage services, contractual requirements, and criteria for evaluating the adequacy of a salvage and marine firefighting service provider. In addition to this effort to prevent surface oil spills, in 2016, the U.S. Coast Guard also recognized the salvage industries advancements in removing oil from sunken ships and recovering submerged pollutants, issuing Oil Spill Removal Organization (OSRO) classification standards for companies that have the capabilities to effectively respond to non-floating oils. Ten years after the implementation of the U.S. salvage and marine firefighting regulatory framework, this paper will review the implementation of the U.S. salvage and marine firefighting regulations and non-floating oil detection and recovery requirements; analyze the impacts and effectiveness of these new policies; and present several case studies and recommendations to further enhance salvage and oil spill response effectiveness.

scholarly journals Characterization of microbial response to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in a lacustrine ecosystem

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio D’Ugo ◽  
Milena Bruno ◽  
Arghya Mukherjee ◽  
Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay ◽  
Roberto Giuseppetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Petroleum Hydrocarbon ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Hydrocarbon Contamination ◽  
Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contamination ◽  
Microbial Response ◽  
Pollution Event ◽  
Hydrocarbonoclastic Potential

AbstractMicrobiomes of freshwater basins intended for human use remain poorly studied, with very little known about the microbial response to in situ oil spills. Lake Pertusillo is an artificial freshwater reservoir in Basilicata, Italy, and serves as the primary source of drinking water for more than one and a half million people in the region. Notably, it is located in close proximity to one of the largest oil extraction plants in Europe. The lake suffered a major oil spill in 2017, where approximately 400 tons of crude oil spilled into the lake; importantly, the pollution event provided a rare opportunity to study how the lacustrine microbiome responds to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination. Water samples were collected from Lake Pertusillo 10 months prior to and 3 months after the accident. The presence of hydrocarbons was verified and the taxonomic and functional aspects of the lake microbiome were assessed. The analysis revealed specialized successional patterns of lake microbial communities that were potentially capable of degrading complex, recalcitrant hydrocarbons, including aromatic, chloroaromatic, nitroaromatic, and sulfur containing aromatic hydrocarbons. Our findings indicated that changes in the freshwater microbial community were associated with the oil pollution event, where microbial patterns identified in the lacustrine microbiome 3 months after the oil spill were representative of its hydrocarbonoclastic potential and may serve as effective proxies for lacustrine oil pollution.

A GIS planning model for urban oil spill management

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 239-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Li
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Planning Model ◽  
Local Conservation ◽  
Control Plan ◽  
Environmental Features ◽  
And Control ◽  
The City

Oil spills in industrialized cities pose a significant threat to their urban water environment. The largest city in Canada, the city of Toronto, has an average 300–500 oil spills per year with an average total volume of about 160,000 L/year. About 45% of the spills was eventually cleaned up. Given the enormous amount of remaining oil entering into the fragile urban ecosystem, it is important to develop an effective pollution prevention and control plan for the city. A Geographic Information System (GIS) planning model has been developed to characterize oil spills and determine preventive and control measures available in the city. A database of oil spill records from 1988 to 1997 was compiled and geo-referenced. Attributes to each record such as spill volume, oil type, location, road type, sector, source, cleanup percentage, and environmental impacts were created. GIS layers of woodlots, wetlands, watercourses, Environmental Sensitive Areas, and Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest were obtained from the local Conservation Authority. By overlaying the spill characteristics with the GIS layers, evaluation of preventive and control solutions close to these environmental features was conducted. It was found that employee training and preventive maintenance should be improved as the principal cause of spills was attributed to human errors and equipment failure. Additionally, the cost of using oil separators at strategic spill locations was found to be $1.4 million. The GIS model provides an efficient planning tool for urban oil spill management. Additionally, the graphical capability of GIS allows users to integrate environmental features and spill characteristics in the management analysis.

Analyses of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Intertidal Sediments Resulting from Two Spills of No. 2 Fuel Oil in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts

1978 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 510-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Teal ◽  
Kathryn Burns ◽  
John Farrington
Keyword(s):  
Gas Chromatography ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Aromatic Hydrocarbons ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Fuel Oil ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Glass Capillary ◽  
Marsh Sediments ◽  
Insight Into

We have analyzed the two- and three-ring aromatic hydrocarbons from the Wild Harbor oil spill in September 1969 and the Winsor Cove oil spill in October 1974, in intertidal marsh sediments, using glass capillary gas-chromatographic and mass-fragmentographic analyses. Naphthalenes with 0–3 alkyl substitutions and phenanthrenes with 0–2 substitutions decreased in concentration with time in surface sediments. The more substituted aromatics decreased relatively less and in some cases actually increased in absolute concentration. The changes in composition of the aromatic fraction have potential consequences for the ecosystem and provide insight into geochemical processes of oil weathering. Key words: oil pollution, aromatic hydrocarbons; gas chromatography; gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; geochemistry; marsh; sediments; oil spills

scholarly journals Oil spill remote monitoring by using remotely piloted aircraft

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-653
Author(s):  
Aleksandrs Urbahs ◽  
Vladislavs Zavtkevics
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Multispectral Imaging ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Thickness Measurement ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Remotely Piloted Aircraft

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the application of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for remote oil spill sensing. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an analysis of RPA strong points. Findings To increase the accuracy and eliminate potentially false contamination detection, which can be caused by external factors, an oil thickness measurement algorithm is used with the help of the multispectral imaging that provides high accuracy and is versatile for any areas of water and various meteorological and atmospheric conditions. Research limitations/implications SWOT analysis of implementation of RPA for remote sensing of oil spills. Practical implications The use of RPA will improve the remote sensing of oil spills. Social implications The concept of oil spills monitoring needs to be developed for quality data collection, oil pollution control and emergency response. Originality/value The research covers the development of a method and design of a device intended for taking samples and determining the presence of oil contamination in an aquatorium area; the procedure includes taking a sample from the water surface, preparing it for transportation and delivering the sample to a designated location by using the RPA. The objective is to carry out the analysis of remote oil spill sensing using RPA. The RPA provides a reliable sensing of oil pollution with significant advantages over other existing methods. The objective is to analyze the use of RPA employing all of their strong points. In this paper, technical aspects of sensors are analyzed, as well as their advantages and limitations.

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