Skimming, Healing, And Protecting The Gulf
In Mid-July 2010, an end of the largest oil spill in US history is in sight
. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform caused parts of the intricate deepwater drilling structure to malfunction. Crude oil and gas under high pressures began gushing to the surface in great volumes, burned down the drilling platform, killed eleven operators, and caused the shutdown of one third of the Gulf for commercial and sports fishing. The gushing crude oil began destroying wetlands, estuaries, shores, and beaches in all states bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. This damage is going to continue for many more months and possibly for years.
The total lack of emergency preparedness in the form of action plans, trained emergency crews, and of suited equipment for spill containment can only be categorized as reckless endangerment of millions of Gulf residents. It has resulted in a major environmental disaster and has become an economic catastrophe for too many Gulf residents.
While the leaking well is being shut in, it is high time to concentrate on dealing with the destructive consequences of the oil leak. Most urgent is the cleaning of Gulf waters from the expanding layers of toxic, stinking, and destructive crude oil and to begin with cleaning of fouled shores, wetlands, estuaries, and beaches. Huge, deepwater oil plumes, which consist of very small oil globules that have been finely atomized by chemical dispersants, will linger for a very long time, will deplete large parts of the Gulf waters from oxygen, and will destroy much marine life for a long time.
The assurance by BP to pay for much of the damages and the establishment of a large escrow for paying of related expenses is making cleanup costs a secondary issue, initially.
The question now becomes; what must be done to clean, collect, and dispose of the widely spread crude oil and do it responsibly. When watching ongoing cleanup efforts, one can only come to one conclusion; there must be a better, less amateurish, and more effective, efficient, and less expensive way.
There is another issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. This issue is the drafting, preparation, and implementation of a plan to prevent reliably the repeat of another, similar disaster with absolute certainty. What are the activities that BP and the Administration must address and solve immediately?
High Capacity Oil Skimmers
The present state of oil skimming technology must be described as shameful and deplorable. Presently available equipment is mostly designed for doing duty on rivers and on small lakes. It is unsuited for cleaning large bodies of waters when waves of more than a couple of feet are present.
High capacity skimmers capable of skimming oil spills with a variety of viscosities, layer thicknesses, and capable of operating in rough waters must be invented, designed, built, tested, and optimized for very large scale deployment. Skimming vessels must be equipped for steaming to a disaster site at very high speeds.
Beach Clean-Up Equipment
Cleaning beaches and wetlands from oily blotches and tar balls is a tough assignment when wearing a protective suit and donning a respiration mask. Cleaning sand on beaches must be mechanized. Beach sand must be cleaned, recovered and redeposited with heavy equipment scaled to the service at hand. The collected oil and sand mixture contains plenty of energy for cleaning sand thoroughly with a thermal process. Perfectly cleaning and re-depositing the sand will also avoid the need for disposing the collected oil and discarded protective gear in landfills, where it will contribute significantly to air pollution of the worst kind.
Oil Spill Emergency Preparedness
One issue needing intense and immediate attention is the establishment of an Emergency Preparedness Service that should become part of the US Coast Guard and should become capable of protecting US coasts from a repeat of an oil spill disaster similar to the one caused by the leak of the BP deepwater well. This will require the stationing of a number of novel types of oil skimmers on all borders of the US that are located in close vicinity to oil shipping lanes and oil drilling sites. Similarly, properly designed and effective deepwater leak containment devices must be stationed at distances close enough for reaching a leak within only a couple of days.
Wetlands and Estuaries Protection
Because of the delicate nature of these more precarious lands, only small equipment can be used and cleaning must be performed by manual labor. Two pieces of equipment must become available to protect laborers during excessively hot days; a personal cooling device and a breathing apparatus that can be worn in extreme heat. Small skimmers and other small cleaning equipment are widely available already.
Conclusions
All the Administration has done is to put in place an unproductive, very expensive, and top-heavy reporting structure. Its main function was to supply information to media organizations that had difficulties understanding what was going on.
It is high time to replace this ineffective structure and other inept committees with a small strike force having a flat command structure that has the capability to make acceptable technical and political decisions and is able to assure that necessary cleanup operations are executed flawlessly. Personnel will have to be trained that are capable of handling cleanup equipment and of performing clean-up efforts even under adverse conditions.
In a joint effort between the Administration and Industry a plan must be developed for creating a capable emergency preparedness agency having under its command the personnel and special equipment assets that are needed for preventing a repeat of the BP disaster. Effective equipment for containing surface spills and deepwater leaks must become available. Proper prevention equipment must be designed, built, and tested. This new equipment must be stationed permanently in harbors strategically located along the shores of the United States.
Citizens of the Gulf do not need Committee Reports that describe in great detail what has happened. Instead they need to have their lives and their economies restored to their original conditions.
by: Klaus H Hemsath
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