Post by Logan on Feb 12, 2016 19:50:39 GMT -6
ANCHORAGE — Alaska oil spill responders have adopted new rules for the rapid use of chemical dispersant but say dispersant will continue to be considered only rarely when mechanical cleanup is not practical.
Chemical dispersant has been used on an oil spill just once in Alaska in the last 40 years — in tests during the 11-million gallon crude oil spill that followed the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. The preferred method of cleanup is mechanical, usually using boom to corral oil and skimmers to lift it from the water.
Chemical dispersant does not remove oil but breaks it into small droplets that spread throughout the water column, making it more available to natural degradation by oil-eating microbes. Responders acknowledge chemical dispersant use is controversial but say it can be a useful tool if there’s a net environmental benefit.
“We are talking about large, enormous spills of crude oil into the waters that completely outpace the ability of mechanical systems of recovery to move that oil from the environment,” said the Coast Guard’s Mark Everett, co-chairman of the Alaska Regional Response Team. “Those are very rare spills.”
Read more: juneauempire.com/state/2016-02-11/alaska-adopts-new-rules-dispersant-use-oil-spills
Chemical dispersant has been used on an oil spill just once in Alaska in the last 40 years — in tests during the 11-million gallon crude oil spill that followed the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. The preferred method of cleanup is mechanical, usually using boom to corral oil and skimmers to lift it from the water.
Chemical dispersant does not remove oil but breaks it into small droplets that spread throughout the water column, making it more available to natural degradation by oil-eating microbes. Responders acknowledge chemical dispersant use is controversial but say it can be a useful tool if there’s a net environmental benefit.
“We are talking about large, enormous spills of crude oil into the waters that completely outpace the ability of mechanical systems of recovery to move that oil from the environment,” said the Coast Guard’s Mark Everett, co-chairman of the Alaska Regional Response Team. “Those are very rare spills.”
Read more: juneauempire.com/state/2016-02-11/alaska-adopts-new-rules-dispersant-use-oil-spills