Professionalizing Oil Spill Response in the 21st Century

Quality over Quantity

By: Joel Hogue, President
Elemental Services & Consulting, Inc. (ESCO)
joelhogue@escoinfo.com
740.815.9660
Posted: April 6, 2014
Revised: January 9, 2015
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines professionalize as making (an activity) into a job that requires
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special education, training, or skill. For oil spill response in the 21 century, professionalization will be
essential to save time, money, environmental impact and reputations.
First, lets establish a baseline of basic knowledge; take a few minutes to answer these basic oil spill
questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

8.
9.
10.

What is the escape velocity of oil past boom in water?

What is the maximum booming angle in a river with a 2 knot current?
How much boom and/or rope is needed to boom a river 1,000 feet wide with a velocity of 2 knots?
What is the minimum rope/anchor point strength for 500 feet river width with a 12 inch boom skirt
in a 2 knot river (assume at 20 boom catenary)?
True or false: When considering line angles around anchor points (trees, columns, etc.) no angle
should exceed 90.
What is the most important consideration when determining oil skimmer effectiveness?
You calculate an underflow dam requires a single 24 inch pipe to carry the flow and velocity of a
stream, but the only pipe you have available is 6 inch pipe. How many 6 inch pipes would be
required to carry the flow and velocity?
According to USCG, what is the speed of oil on water when driven only by the wind (wind vector
drift)?
When using on water anchors (i.e. Danforth type) for booming, in order to achieve 100%
holding power, what is the minimum line length for the anchor (based on water depth)?
True or false: According to NOAA, containment booming is indicated for gasoline spills.

These are basic questions that rely on basic math and science principles to implement. Look at almost
any public or private responder website or look at the news coverage of oil spills and you will see nearly
every incident shows incorrectly placed boom, inappropriate use of sorbent materials, inadequate
skimmer utilization and much more that impacts a projects time to complete, cost, environmental impact
and the reputation of Owners and responders. Contrary to what some may say, there are no rules of
thumb in spill planning and response only math and science.
Granted, there is basic education (knowledge) and training (skills) that is required to understand and
determine some of answers above which is the point. For decades, experience (i.e. quantity) has been
touted as superior to competence (i.e. quality) when describing qualifications by public and private
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responders alike. Moving forward in the 21 century will require that all oil spill responders have at least a
basic knowledge and specific skills to work safely, minimize and eliminate environmental impact, not
create additional impact and reduce the time and cost of restoring a site following an oil spill.
There is a scientific basis for nearly every aspect of oil spill response from boom deployment through
response methods in various habitats. Not only is this information based in science, thereby making work
safer, faster and more effective, it is defensible by those implementing the countermeasures and cleanup.
For example, there is no scientific explanation for responders walking through oil and carrying it down into
the sediments on their boots impacting a previously non-impacted habitat, yet it happens all too often.
(Continued)

There are many common themes with responders (public and private) across the US, including:
1. Many responders have a poor level of readiness. If an oil spill occurs on a river with a 2 knot
current (3.4 feet/second), in just 10 minutes the spill has moved 2,025 feet down river. In 60
minutes, it will have traveled 12,152 feet thats over 2 miles! In spill response, time is
money and responder readiness is critical to minimizing environmental impact and cleanup
costs. Many responders must gather needed supplies and equipment and load them before
deployment, taking valuable time that only serves to increase a spills impact area.
Furthermore, most responders rely on other contractors to assist them when a spill occurs as
a subcontractor but think about this: Most responders are okay with their level of readiness
because they can count on subcontractors; However, THEY are the subs others are
counting on as well; this has led to a well get there when we get there attitude instead of an
emergency response attitude.
2. Many responders have the wrong type, size and quantity of boom for their response area.
Many have boom without a tensioning member that will prohibit the appropriate use of the
boom in fast water (more than one-half knot). In addition to boom deployment at the wrong
angle, oil will entrain if the boom draft is more than about 20 percent of the channel depth
being boomed (i.e. if the channel being boomed is two feet deep, boom draft must be less
than 4.8 inches) this is known as boom undercut and it is rarely considered, especially with
inland and upland spills. Sadly, most responders dont have enough boom for even a single
location within their response area.
3. Lack of equipment. Many responders have very few options in their response tool box.
Looking only at anchor systems, most responders dont have more than one type of anchor
system, let alone a single adequate anchor system for their response area. Most dont have
on-water anchors of sufficient quantity, size or type. Additionally, most responders dont have
pulleys, shackles, nylon straps, a means to adjust boom, snap hooks, etc. basic equipment
that may be needed to adequately respond to and contain an oil spill.
4. Another deficit is rope for anchoring and other uses. Most responders dont have sufficient
type, size or quantity of rope to adequately anchor boom, install ferry systems or perform
other tasks. Some responders even use life safety rope for boom anchoring.
5. Most responders have only one skimmer while some have none. Different skimmers are
designed for different habitats and different oils. Having only one skimmer slows recovery of
oil significantly increasing environmental impact and increasing project costs.
6. Most responders (public and private) have no formal education or training in oil spill response
and cleanup. Many cite HAZWOPER as oil spill training and claim to be extensively trained.
There are groups who provide oil spill specific education and training, yet most responders
rely on on the job (OTJ) training that just perpetuates the tactics that havent worked and
continue to create additional environmental impact.
This is not intended to be critical of individual responders, but rather to illustrate the need for specific
education and training for both public and private oil spill responders.
A cursory review of oil spill response, booming, damming, recovery, etc. oil spill presentations online
show many presenters (public and private) simply cut and paste photos, drawings and text from other
presentations as well as from manuals and books and simply rehash those ideas, tactics and techniques
that havent worked. These presentations as well as training classes are just repeated time and time
again with no rationale given for anything presented.

(Continued)

Charles Kettering, noted inventor, engineer, founder of Delco, and head of research at General Motors in
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the early to mid-20 century stated, Knowing is not understanding. There is a great difference between
knowing and understanding; you can know a lot about something and not really understand it. It is this
lack of understanding of even basic spill response techniques and tactics that has created a fertile
breeding ground for many well-intentioned, but misguided experts. The problem is not response
technology (boom, skimmers, etc.); its the inappropriate implementation of the technology which is
based on a lack of education and training.
Its time to professionalize oil spill response and ensure responders are adequately educated and trained
in oil spill specific knowledge and skills. In doing so, worker safety will be improved, environmental impact
will be significantly reduced, response times reduced and responders will have more effective
containment and recovery of oil thereby saving time, money, environmental impact and reputations.
Curious about the answers to the above questions?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.

7.
8.
9.
10.

0.7 knots (USCG)

20.8
2,816 feet
19,321 pounds for each anchor point (rounded) (does not include debris load)(based on 20
boom catenary)
True, this minimizes forces on each side of the anchor a 30 anchor angle distributes 51.8% of
the load to each side of the anchor. Angles greater than 120 distribute 100% and more the load
to each side of the anchor
Oil Encounter Rate (If there isnt enough oil encountering the skimmer, too much water is
potentially recovered and if there is too much oil encountering the skimmer, entrainment or
drainage loss may occur)
16 (its all about the area of a circle)
3.5% of wind speed (USCG) (Environment Canada ranges from 1% to 6%)
10 times the water depth will give 100% holding power (10:1)
False, containment booming of gasoline spills is not indicated for any habitat

Curious about how ESCO is improving oil spill response with our Tactical Response Plans, Oil Spill Job
Aids, new equipment and techniques for containment, anchoring and recovery and more check us out
at www.escoinfo.com.
2014 Elemental Services & Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Elemental Services & Consulting, Inc.

www.escoinfo.com
info@escoinfo.com
740.815.9660