Spill Tools: An Oil Spill Response Exercise

Photo: an airborne observer estimates slick areaAn oil slick has just been reported off your port city. It's estimated to be about 1 square kilometer in area, and to contain about 1,000 barrels of oil. An initial trajectory forecast shows that the slick is predicted to arrive at a nearby sensitive area within 10 hours (a sensitive area is a location especially vulnerable to harm from oiling, such as a seabird nesting area, historical site, or feeding ground where birds or wildlife congregate).

You need to decide how to allocate your response resources to remove as much of the spilled oil from the sea surface as possible before the slick reaches the sensitive site. You want to evaluate three approaches:

You'll use the Spill Tools to estimate how effective you might be, and whether you can recover all the oil before the slick reaches the sensitive area. Before you begin,

EXERCISES

1. The Dispersant Mission Planner Evaluate applying dispersants as a response measure for this spill.

2. The In-Situ Burn Calculator Evaluate in-situ burning as a response measure for this spill, and estimate the extent of the smoke plume from the burn.

3. The Mechanical Equipment Calculator Estimate how much of the spilled oil you could skim off the sea surface before the oil reaches the sensitive site.

Revised: April 16, 2001
Office of Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration