STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF OIL SPILL RESPONSE OPTIONS: A NOAA-U.S. NAVY JOINT PROJECT

2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (2) ◽  
pp. 883-890 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Barker ◽  
William P. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Trajectory Analysis ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Current Version ◽  
Continue Development ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Impact Events

ABSTRACT The U.S. Navy is in the process of re-evaluating its oil spill response preparedness. As part of that effort, the Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have teamed up to continue development of a tool designed to help planners assess their response effectiveness: the Trajectory Analysis Planner (TAP). TAP is an interface to a database of thousands of modeled oil spill trajectories, an ensemble of trajectories that represent the population of all possible spills. The TAP interface helps response planners understand characteristics of the possible oil spills in a given region. With this understanding, they can not only plan for one or a few possible high-impact events, but can determine the best overall plan for many events, across a large spectrum of probabilities and levels of impact. This paper is the result of the joint NOAA-Navy project to extend the capabilities of TAP. The capabilities and interface of the current version of the program (TAP II) are presented, along with some of its limitations. The need and direction of the development of a new version (TAP III) that will address some of these limitations is discussed. This future approach will allow planners to assess how different response options are likely to influence the ultimate impact of an oil spill in a region.

scholarly journals Response Options for an Offshore Deepwater Blow-Out, A Generic Evaluation of Individual and Combined Response Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Johan Brandvik ◽  
Jørgen Skancke ◽  
Ragnhild Daae ◽  
Kristin Sørheim ◽  
Per S. Daling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Performance Testing ◽  
Similar Amount ◽  
Recovery Rates ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Mechanical Recovery

Abstract The low oil recovery rates reported during Macondo (3–5% of the released oil) have caused discussions regarding the efficiency of mechanical recovery compared to other oil spill response options. These low recovery rates have unfortunately been used as reference recovery rates in several later modelling studies and oil spill response analysis. Multiple factors could explain these low rates, such as operational priorities, where dispersants and/or in situ burning are given priority before mechanical recovery; extended safety zones; availability of adequate equipment and storage capacity of collected oil; the number of units available; the level of training and the available remote sensing support to guide operations. This study uses the OSCAR oil spill model to simulate a deep-water oil release to evaluate the effect of different response options both separately and in combination. The evaluated response options are subsea dispersant injection, mechanical recovery, and a combination of these. As expected, Subsea Dispersant Injection (SSDI) was highly effective and resulted in a significant reduction in residual surface oil (8% of released oil volume, versus 28% for the non-response option, NR). However, using large offshore oil recovery systems also reduced residual surface oil with a similar amount (9% of released oil volume). These results deviate significantly from the efficiency numbers reported after the Macondo incident and from later modelling studies scaled after the Macondo recovery rates. The increased efficiency of mechanical reported in this study is mainly due to inclusion of updated descriptions of response capabilities, reduced exclusion zone, a more realistic representation of surface oil distribution and modelling of response units' interactions with oil, (efficient oil recovery only on thick parts of the oil slick). The response capabilities and efficiency numbers for the different response options used in this study are based on equipment specifications from multiple response providers and authorities (Norwegian Clean Seas organisation (NOFO), Oil Spill Response (OSRL), Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA), US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and others). These capabilities are justified by well-established contingency plans, offshore exercises and annual equipment performance testing with oil.

The Adaptation of Mariculture Practices In Response To Spilled Oil

1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 (1) ◽  
pp. 985-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Wadsworth ◽  
Brian Dicks ◽  
Clément Lavigne
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Contingency Plan ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Response Measures ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Spilled Oil ◽  
Early Harvest

ABSTRACT Oil spills may contaminate both mariculture facilities and livestock. Prevention of oiling should therefore be afforded a high priority. Given appropriate conditions, this may be achieved by the traditional spill response measures. However, a number of self-help response options are open to mariculturalists, that may avoid or limit the effects of spilled oil. These include the relocation of cages, transfer of stock, and early harvest, although such measures are only likely to be successful if a well-prepared contingency plan exists. The advantages and drawbacks of each of these approaches in the context of oil spill response are discussed.

MARINE OIL SPILL RESPONSE OPTIONS: THE MANUAL

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 881-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott B. Robertson ◽  
Alexis Steen ◽  
Robert Pavia ◽  
LCDR David Skewes ◽  
Ann Hayward Walker
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Marine Oil ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Response Decisions ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Response Method

ABSTRACT When planning response activities for an oil spill, decision makers must react to a wide range of circumstances. Decisions will vary depending on the type of petroleum product spilled and the nature of the impacted habitat. Response decisions will be based on tradeoffs dealing with the environmental consequences of the spilled oil and the response method selected, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the method. A new manual, Marine Oil Spill Response Options for Minimizing Environmental Impacts, is being jointly produced by industry and government to facilitate decision making for both prespill planning and incident response. Guidance will be provided through matrix tables indicating the relative environmental consequences of the different response options used for various categories of oil in open water and shoreline habitats. This paper describes the contents of the new manual.

Responding to Oil Spills in Louisiana's Coastal Floating Marshes: Ecology, Oil Impact, and Response Alternatives

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 625-629
Author(s):  
Charlie Henry ◽  
Charles E. Sasser ◽  
Guerry O. Holm ◽  
Kevin Lynn ◽  
John Brolin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Floating Marsh ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Spilled Oil

ABSTRACT Freshwater marshes cover 4000 square kilometers of the Louisiana coastal zone and are the most abundant marsh habitat type. Many of these marshes actually float as organic mats on underlying water. Some estimates suggest as much as 70% of Louisiana's coastal freshwater marsh are of the floating variety. The slow flow of water characteristic of these environments generally transports very little sediment. As a result, the marsh substrate is composed of primarily live and dead organic matter (peat formation) rather than mineral sediments. Since floating marshes are structurally different than intertidal marsh habitats, many traditional oil spill response options are ineffective or inappropriate. Access to the marsh is often limited since there is no open water ingress and the marsh structure cannot support the weight of equipment. Oil spill response options are further complicated when the source of the oil is a pipeline leak located below the floating marsh mat; spilled oil is free to travel at the interface of the underlying water and mat. Protection booming is impossible. Oil impacts often result in the death of all the living plants that are integral to the formation and sustainability of the habitat. This paper reports on two oil spills in a floating marsh near Paradis, Louisiana that occurred eight years apart. Both spills were spatially close to each other, which provided an excellent comparison for assessing potential long-term impact from oil spills in floating marshes. During both oil spill responses, unique response techniques were developed to recover spilled oil and enhance marsh recovery. An effective technique was to rake away and remove the dead oil-contaminated surface plant debris from the site and employ sorbent recovery. Lessons learned from these responses were used to develop mitigation guidance for future responses.

Regional Planning for Shoreline Cold Weather Oil Spill Response in Finland

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 300140
Author(s):  
J. Halonen
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Cold Weather ◽  
Success Factor ◽  
Joint Project ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Holistic Management ◽  
Near Shore ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
The Baltic

Finland's northern location presents operational and logistical challenges to effective oil spill response operation in the wintertime as the northern parts of the Baltic Sea are covered by ice almost every winter. In Finland the Regional Rescue Services (RRS) are responsible for near shore spill response and shoreline cleanup operations. To improve their cold weather response capability four coastal RRS initiated a joint project to develop a shoreline cold weather response plan. This project called WinterSOKO (A32372) focuses on the response options applicable in cold conditions and the spill response logistics on snow- and ice-covered shorelines and near shore waters. This paper presents the logistical approach used in the project. Optimal combination of marine and land based logistical support is a key success factor as the cold weather response requires a holistic management of multiple response strategies with variable conditions in the spill site.

scholarly journals The Use of Dispersants in Marine Oil Spill Response

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen K. White ◽  
Stacee Karras
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Alternative Response ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Marine Oil ◽  
Oil Spill Response

ABSTRACT Each marine oil spill presents unique circumstances and challenges that require careful consideration of which response options are most appropriate for mitigating impacts to local communities and the environment, which may include the use of dispersants. Dispersants are chemical countermeasures that reduce the amount of floating oil by promoting the formation of small droplets that remain or become entrained in the water column, where they are subjected to greater dissolution and dilution. During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, an unprecedented volume of dispersants was used at the surface and in the deep ocean. The spill stimulated interest and funding for research on oil spill science, especially regarding dispersant use. Building on two previous reports and using this new information, a committee of experts convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) conducted a review and evaluation of the science on dispersant use. The committee's review focused on various aspects of dispersant use in offshore marine oil spills, including dispersant and oil fate and transport, human health considerations, biological effects, decision making, and alternative response options, among others. The findings and recommendations of the committee were published in the recent report, The Use of Dispersants in Marine Oil Spill Response (available for free download at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25161/the-use-of-dispersants-in-marine-oil-spill-response). The presentation summarizes the committee's findings and recommendations within the context of oil spill response science and technology. A key area of consideration is how they relate to and support a robust decision making process in the event dispersants are considered for use in future spills.

scholarly journals A Tool For Comparing Relative Risks to Ecological Components Associated With Different Oil Spill Response Options

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bock ◽  
Hilary Robinson ◽  
Richard Wenning ◽  
Deborah French-McCay ◽  
Jill Rowe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Application Framework ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Relative Risks ◽  
Collaborative Tool ◽  
Comparative Risk ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
Different Response

ABSTRACT Subsea dispersant injection (SSDI) applied to a deepwater blowout has been shown to be a highly efficient oil spill response (OSR) tool that, under appropriate conditions, can substantially lessen and delay oil surfacing as well as reduce the persistence of surface oil slicks. Bock et al. (2018) explored the relative ecological and societal risks associated with integration of SSDI into OSR strategies in the northern Gulf of Mexico using a comparative risk assessment (CRA) desktop analysis tool. The CRA analysis tool was developed with regulatory and stakeholder engagement and communication in mind; the user interface and emphasis on visualization of the assessment results were intended to facilitate rapid examination of the consequences of different spill scenarios in the presence and absence of SSDI and other OSR technologies. Using the CRA tool, decision makers are now better able to predict the nature and extent of the likely consequences to shoreline and aquatic valued ecological components (VECs) and environmental compartments (ECs), and examine the relative consequences of deploying different response technologies. The CRA tool has been substantially improved and has been redesigned from an Excel spreadsheet into a web-based application with enhanced interactive data visualizations and collaboration tools. The new web-based CRA tool is based on the Shiny application framework, an R based open source system for building interactive web-based applications. The updated CRA tool (https://nert.shinyapps.io/CRA_viewer/) now includes improved visualizations of the oil spill modeling results, depictions of the spatial footprint of different ECs, and the interactive exploration of the CRA results and intermediate calculations. Stakeholders are able to drill down into the components of the analysis and more easily explore the parameters that drive CRA scores, as well as explore alternative scoring options. The tool has also been modified to facilitate updating the CRA tool for new oil spill scenarios and OSR options. This web-based interactive CRA tool greatly enhances the usability of CRA as a collaborative tool for evaluating OSR options during planning and can also be used to inform the evaluation of response options during planning, training, and during an incident.

scholarly journals AN INLAND OIL SPILL RESPONSE MANUAL TO MINIMIZE ADVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. Owens ◽  
E. Taylor ◽  
R. Marty ◽  
D. I. Little
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
American Petroleum Institute ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Inland Waters ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Freshwater Habitats ◽  
Oil Spill Response

ABSTRACT Inland oil spills generally have received less attention than their coastal and marine counterparts. On the average, more than 2,000 spills occur on the inland waters of the continental United States each year. Recognizing the potential effects of these spills, the American Petroleum Institute has funded several studies in recent years to address issues associated with inland spills. One product of this activity is the preparation of a set of guidelines to be published as a manual for inland oil spill response. The manual focuses on the identification of techniques that would have minimal intrinsic ecological impacts (that is, to living resources) and would also minimize the total ecological and/or environmental impacts of the oil. The guidelines are intended to help decision makers assess whether the available response options can mitigate the effects of a spill and/or accelerate recovery from the oiling. The analysis and the recommendations are presented in a set of matrices that combine four oil types, more than 20 response techniques, and 10 inland freshwater habitats.

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

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.

scholarly journals 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)

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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