OSRO’s and Oil Spill Cleanup Methods
Posted on Fri, May 21, 2010 @ 10:01 AM
By Craig Childres, Director of Business Development - Petroleum & Energy
When an oil spill occurs, the oil forms a thin slick that floats on the water. As the oil spreads, it thins out, provided the source of the leak has been stopped and will eventually becomes a sheen. The speed in which a cleanup crew, or OSRO (Oil Spill Response Organization) can reach a spill, along with other factors (tide/current, impacted shoreline, weather, etc.), determines what method(s) the OSRO may use to perform the cleanup.
Usually if the OSRO can reach the spill within the first few hours the best method is containment and skimming. Containment booms, made of heavy gauge plastic covering foam like material along with a weight skirt that trails under the water will keep the oil from spreading out. This makes it easier to skim oil from the surface, using portable skimmers or boats that remove the oil, but leave the water behind. The recovered oil is collected in tanks or vacuum trucks and hauled off site for recycling or disposal.
When oil is contained or near a shoreline it can also be collected by the use of sorbents. Sorbents are usually made of synthetic material that is hydrophobic (repels water) and olephillic (loves oil). These sorbets come in the form of pads, sheets, long tubes (socks or boom) or OSRO's can use snare or pom-poms. Snare is shredded polypropylene tied together and placed in sensitive areas affected by the spill to recover the oil.
When an oil spill reached quickly these are the easiest to clean up by one of these methods. Oil spill cleanup is generally a very dirty, hazardous and environmentally threatening process.