What Kind of Technique Cleans Up Oil Spills Better?

Oil spills can result from ruptured oil drilling platforms, leaking underwater oil pipes or collisions or groundings involving oil tanker ships. The problem with large coastal oil spills involves the impact on environment, marine life and waterfowl. Oil spills can have devastating long-term effects on the marine environment, threatening the fishing industry, tourism, habitat reproduction and untold dollars spent on cleanup and habitat restoration. Some of the best oil spill cleaning techniques originate from old-school experience, and range to the more profound, innovative solutions.

Chemical Dispersants

• Chemical dispersants, which break up the oil into minute particles, remains one of the best choices for cleanup on oil spills covering very large surface areas. Boats, planes and onshore working crews spray the dispersants into the oil, which breaks down the oil into droplets, separating it from the water. The droplets can then be ingested by naturally-occurring bacteria in the marine environment. Underwater dispersants, deployed by submersible vehicles, have had success in breaking up oil before it reaches the surface.

Controlled Burns

• Controlled burns involve surrounding and corralling the oil spill within a fireproof boom. The boom is tightened, concentrating the oil into dense pockets that make them highly combustible. The oil becomes ignited by aircraft via remote means or incendiaries. When done quickly enough, the controlled burn removes huge amounts of oil in a relatively short time, keeping it away from shoreline locations. The burn must happen shortly after the oil spill to be effective, and it can have a negative affect on the atmosphere, with the release of soot and carbon.

Skimmers and Booms

• A very successful technique in removing oil from the water involves the use of skimmers and booms. Booms are used to surround oil, then pull it in to a concentrated area. Skimmers use mechanical devices to gather or vacuum up the thickest accumulations of crude oil and store it. Several skimmers working between the shoreline and the spill can stop or reduce the amount of oil that could reach the beaches and tidal pools. Weather conditions play an important part in how effectively the skimmers can gather significant volumes. Skimmers and booms still remain one of the best options for oil spill containment and cleanup.

Sorbent Material

• The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) believes that one of the best techniques for cleaning up small oil spills and lasting traces of spills, involves the use of sorbent (absorbent) materials, like sawdust, clay, feathers, wool and certain absorbent synthetic materials. It must be stated that BP and government officials have only "considered" the option of using sorbent materials on the larger spills, but the prospects remain positive, since some sorbent materials can successfully collect up to 70 times their weight.

Natural Dispersion

• If the oil spill has no possibility of impacting and polluting marine industries, marshes and coastal regions, the best solution remains a hands-off approach, which means it should be left to nature to eventually degrade it. The radiation of the sun, coupled with waves, wind and natural currents quickly evaporates most oils in the water, with the exception of heavy crude. Natural dispersion works very effectively on lighter oils with lower viscosity. Natural dispersion qualifies as the most cost-saving way to reduce a spill.

Manual Cleanup

• Manual, or mechanical cleanup, remains one of the best industry solutions for cleaning up oil spills when they reach the coastline. The process involves the enlistment of hundreds, sometimes thousands of manual laborers, who attack the contaminated beaches with heavy construction equipment, pumps, shovels, buckets, barriers, wheel barrels, rakes, brooms, and sometimes solvents. Manual cleanup can be expensive for heavily-impacted tourist areas that have ports, fisheries and marinas, but remains the best alternative to cleanup coastal areas.