OIL SPILL DATABASES: DEVELOPING PREVENTION STRATEGIES ACROSS STATE LINES

ABSTRACT This paper details the process used by two states, California and Washington, to develop common reporting of oil spill causes. Many different agencies use databases to store oil spill information, but there is a general lack of standardization in reporting requirements, making it difficult to share information. Many of these databases only reflect initial spill reports, and few contain information on spill causes that could be used to prevent oil spills from occurring. Washington State's Office of Marine Safety (OMS) has developed an extensive database that includes spill and casualty information from vessels transiting Washington state waters. California State Lands Commission, Marine Facilities Division (MFD), has similarly developed an oil spill database for marine terminals in the state of California. What makes these systems unique is that they attempt to integrate reliable, accurate information on incident causes, paying particular attention to human error. Both agencies have joined together in a pilot program to share oil spill causal information using common terms. This paper addresses the approach used to establish common data dictionaries, oil spill report formats, and a methodology to determine causal information. California and Washington are currently working with other states and British Columbia to develop common reporting throughout the West Coast. The information collected and shared can be used by each jurisdiction to develop appropriate prevention strategies.

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THE CONTRIBUTION OF AIR CUSHIONED VEHICLES IN OIL SPILL RESPONSE1

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-1993-1-127 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 1993 (1) ◽

pp. 127-133

Author(s):

Mac W. McCarthy ◽

John McGrath

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Washington State ◽

Coast Guard ◽

Fish Processing ◽

The Pacific ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

International Boundary ◽

Dense Fog

ABSTRACT On July 22, 1991, the Tuo Hai, a 46,500 ton Chinese grain carrier, collided with the Tenyo Maru, a 4,800 ton Japanese fish processing ship, off the coast of Washington State. The Tenyo Maru sank, creating an oil spill that cost upwards of $4 million (U.S.) to clean up. The incident initiated a joint response from the U.S. and Canadian governments. As part of this response, the Canadian Coast Guard mobilized an SRN-6 hovercraft. This air cushioned vehicle (ACV) provided logistical support to responders on both sides of the international boundary. The response operation along the Pacific Coast was extensive. Dense fog and the remote location of the impacted area provided formidable challenges to the cleanup effort. It was the mission scenario of the Canadian SRN-6 hovercraft to provide logistical support—as an experiment in ACV utility—to the organizations responding to this incident. Based on this experience, it can be argued that the hovercraft offers great potential value in responding to marine oil spills. Appropriate application of ACV technology can enhance oil spill response work, spill waste management, and incident surveillance. This paper discusses the contribution of the SRN-6 hovercraft to the Tenyo Maru response, briefly examines the use of another, very different hovercraft, during a response in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and reviews a new hovercraft design and discusses its potential contributions.

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ECOLOGICAL AND GEOMORPHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE VULNERABILITY OF THE COASTS OF THE KARA SEA TO THE OIL SPILL

Proceedings of International Conference "Managinag risks to coastal regions and communities in a changinag world" (EMECS'11 - SeaCoasts XXVI) ◽

10.31519/conferencearticle_5b1b93bbd3c097.74338053 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Ermolov ◽

Alexander Ermolov

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

International System ◽

Kara Sea ◽

Coastal Protection ◽

Sensitivity Index ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

Expert Assessments ◽

International Systems

International experience of oil spill response in the sea defines the priority of coastal protection and the need to identify as most valuable in ecological terms and the most vulnerable areas. Methodological approaches to the assessing the vulnerability of Arctic coasts to oil spills based on international systems of Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) and geomorphological zoning are considered in the article. The comprehensive environmental and geomorphological approach allowed us to form the morphodynamic basis for the classification of seacoasts and try to adapt the international system of indexes to the shores of the Kara Sea taking into account the specific natural conditions. This work has improved the expert assessments of the vulnerability and resilience of the seacoasts.

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An assessment of toxic metals content in the marine sediments of the Shuaiba Industrial Area, Kuwait, after the oil spill during the Gulf War

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.1996.0623 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 34 (7-8) ◽

pp. 203-210 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

S. Al-Muzaini ◽

P. G. Jacob

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Marine Sediment ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Industrial Area ◽

Gulf War ◽

Oil Wells ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

Base Line ◽

Sampling Locations ◽

Very High

A field study was carried out involving seven fixed sampling stations. The sampling locations were selected to cover the distribution of pollutants in the Shuaiba Industrial Area (SIA), which was contaminated with oil released from oil wells and broken pipelines and with a vast amount of burnt and unburnt crude oil from the burning and gushing oil wells. The samples were collected biweekly between July 1993 and July 1994. The concentrations of V, Ni, Cr, Cd and Pb were determined and compared with the previously collected baseline data to assess the degree of environmental damage caused due to the oil spills during the Gulf war. The average concentrations (mg/kg) of various elements in the marine sediment were 17.3 for V, 30.8 for Ni, 55.5 for Cr, 0.02 for Cd and 1.95 for Pb. Our results show that even after the heavy spillage of oil, associated metal concentrations were not very high compared with previously reported base line values.

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Explanation Beyond Causation

10.1093/oso/9780198777946.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Keyword(s):

Philosophy Of Science ◽

Case Studies ◽

Philosophical Study ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Contemporary Philosophy ◽

Causal Information ◽

Causal Explanations ◽

Turn On ◽

Detailed Case ◽

Wide Range

Explanations are very important to us in many contexts: in science, mathematics, philosophy, and also in everyday and juridical contexts. But what is an explanation? In the philosophical study of explanation, there is long-standing, influential tradition that links explanation intimately to causation: we often explain by providing accurate information about the causes of the phenomenon to be explained. Such causal accounts have been the received view of the nature of explanation, particularly in philosophy of science, since the 1980s. However, philosophers have recently begun to break with this causal tradition by shifting their focus to kinds of explanation that do not turn on causal information. The increasing recognition of the importance of such non-causal explanations in the sciences and elsewhere raises pressing questions for philosophers of explanation. What is the nature of non-causal explanations—and which theory best captures it? How do non-causal explanations relate to causal ones? How are non-causal explanations in the sciences related to those in mathematics and metaphysics? This volume of new essays explores answers to these and other questions at the heart of contemporary philosophy of explanation. The essays address these questions from a variety of perspectives, including general accounts of non-causal and causal explanations, as well as a wide range of detailed case studies of non-causal explanations from the sciences, mathematics and metaphysics.

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Next-Generation Smart Response Web (NG-SRW): An Operational Spatial Decision Support System for Maritime Oil Spill Emergency Response in the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126585 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6585

Author(s):

Mihhail Fetissov ◽

Robert Aps ◽

Floris Goerlandt ◽

Holger Jänes ◽

Jonne Kotta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Situational Awareness ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Response Strategy ◽

Spatial Decision Support System ◽

Next Generation ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

The Baltic

The Baltic Sea is a unique and sensitive brackish-water ecosystem vulnerable to damage from shipping activities. Despite high levels of maritime safety in the area, there is a continued risk of oil spills and associated harmful environmental impacts. Achieving common situational awareness between oil spill response decision makers and other actors, such as merchant vessel and Vessel Traffic Service center operators, is an important step to minimizing detrimental effects. This paper presents the Next-Generation Smart Response Web (NG-SRW), a web-based application to aid decision making concerning oil spill response. This tool aims to provide, dynamically and interactively, relevant information on oil spills. By integrating the analysis and visualization of dynamic spill features with the sensitivity of environmental elements and value of human uses, the benefits of potential response actions can be compared, helping to develop an appropriate response strategy. The oil spill process simulation enables the response authorities to judge better the complexity and dynamic behavior of the systems and processes behind the potential environmental impact assessment and thereby better control the oil combat action.

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SAR Oil Spill Detection System through Random Forest Classifiers

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13112044 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 2044

Author(s):

Marcos R. A. Conceição ◽

Luis F. F. Mendonça ◽

Carlos A. D. Lentini ◽

André T. C. Lima ◽

José M. Lopes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Random Forest ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Detection System ◽

Feature Space ◽

Dark Spot ◽

Sar Image ◽

Extensive Search ◽

Gradient Based ◽

Biological Films

A set of open-source routines capable of identifying possible oil-like spills based on two random forest classifiers were developed and tested with a Sentinel-1 SAR image dataset. The first random forest model is an ocean SAR image classifier where the labeling inputs were oil spills, biological films, rain cells, low wind regions, clean sea surface, ships, and terrain. The second one was a SAR image oil detector named “Radar Image Oil Spill Seeker (RIOSS)”, which classified oil-like targets. An optimized feature space to serve as input to such classification models, both in terms of variance and computational efficiency, was developed. It involved an extensive search from 42 image attribute definitions based on their correlations and classifier-based importance estimative. This number included statistics, shape, fractal geometry, texture, and gradient-based attributes. Mixed adaptive thresholding was performed to calculate some of the features studied, returning consistent dark spot segmentation results. The selected attributes were also related to the imaged phenomena’s physical aspects. This process helped us apply the attributes to a random forest, increasing our algorithm’s accuracy up to 90% and its ability to generate even more reliable results.

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Quantifying the consequence of applying conservative assumptions in the assessment of oil spill effects on polar cod (Boreogadus saida) populations

Polar Biology ◽

10.1007/s00300-021-02824-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 575-586

Author(s):

Pepijn De Vries ◽

Jacqueline Tamis ◽

Jasmine Nahrgang ◽

Marianne Frantzen ◽

Robbert Jak ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Population Level ◽

Threshold Concentration ◽

The Arctic ◽

Polar Cod ◽

Boreogadus Saida ◽

Precautionary Approach ◽

Recovery Duration ◽

The Impact

AbstractIn order to assess the potential impact from oil spills and decide the optimal response actions, prediction of population level effects of key resources is crucial. These assessments are usually based on acute toxicity data combined with precautionary assumptions because chronic data are often lacking. To better understand the consequences of applying precautionary approaches, two approaches for assessing population level effects on the Arctic keystone species polar cod (Boreogadus saida) were compared: a precautionary approach, where all exposed individuals die when exposed above a defined threshold concentration, and a refined (full-dose-response) approach. A matrix model was used to assess the population recovery duration of scenarios with various but constant exposure concentrations, durations and temperatures. The difference between the two approaches was largest for exposures with relatively low concentrations and short durations. Here, the recovery duration for the refined approach was less than eight times that found for the precautionary approach. Quantifying these differences helps to understand the consequences of precautionary assumptions applied to environmental risk assessment used in oil spill response decision making and it can feed into the discussion about the need for more chronic toxicity testing. An elasticity analysis of our model identified embryo and larval survival as crucial processes in the life cycle of polar cod and the impact assessment of oil spills on its population.

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Revisit of a Case Study of Spilled Oil Slicks Caused by the Sanchi Accident (2018) in the East China Sea

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9030279 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 279

Author(s):

Zhehao Yang ◽

Weizeng Shao ◽

Yuyi Hu ◽

Qiyan Ji ◽

Huan Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

East China Sea ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Ocean Model ◽

Sea Surface ◽

East China ◽

The East China Sea ◽

Sar Images ◽

China Sea ◽

Spatial Coverage

Marine oil spills occur suddenly and pose a serious threat to ecosystems in coastal waters. Oil spills continuously affect the ocean environment for years. In this study, the oil spill caused by the accident of the Sanchi ship (2018) in the East China Sea was hindcast simulated using the oil particle-tracing method. Sea-surface winds from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), currents simulated from the Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), and waves simulated from the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) were employed as background marine dynamics fields. In particular, the oil spill simulation was compared with the detection from Chinese Gaofen-3 (GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The validation of the SWAN-simulated significant wave height (SWH) against measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter showed a 0.58 m root mean square error (RMSE) with a 0.93 correlation (COR). Further, the sea-surface current was compared with that from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2), yielding a 0.08 m/s RMSE and a 0.71 COR. Under these circumstances, we think the model-simulated sea-surface currents and waves are reliable for this work. A hindcast simulation of the tracks of oil slicks spilled from the Sanchi shipwreck was conducted during the period of 14–17 January 2018. It was found that the general track of the simulated oil slicks was consistent with the observations from the collected GF-3 SAR images. However, the details from the GF-3 SAR images were more obvious. The spatial coverage of oil slicks between the SAR-detected and simulated results was about 1 km2. In summary, we conclude that combining numerical simulation and SAR remote sensing is a promising technique for real-time oil spill monitoring and the prediction of oil spreading.

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

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-021-13885-8 ◽

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.

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