Spill Tools: An Oil Spill Response Exercise

An 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:

• applying dispersant to disperse the oil into the water column.
  
• using in situ burning to burn off oil from the slick.
  
• using skimmers to mechanically remove oil from the sea surface.

What you'll need 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, review these sections, if you haven't already.

Introduction to Spill Tools More information about Spill Tools.

Downloading, Installing, and Using Spill Tools Download and install the Spill Tools software.

Spill Containment Methods Learn more about booms, in situ burning, and dispersants.

Exercise Sections

Spill Tools Exercise: The Dispersant Mission Planner Evaluate applying dispersants as a response measure for this spill.

Spill Tools Exercise: 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.

Spill Tools Exercise: 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.