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Contents Introduction Detection and Assessment of an Oil Spill's Extent Containment: Oil Booms Mechanical Recovery: Skimmers and Separators Cleanup: Chemicals and Microbes Remediation: Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Conclusion

From accurate, real-time detection to quick deployment of the right containment and cleanup methods at the right location, oil spill response is a largely low-tech endeavor that hasn't changed much over the years. According to U.S. Coast Guard incident operations coordinator Doug Helton, there are improvements and efficiencies on the edges, but oil spill cleanup still relies on heroic efforts and a lot of dirty, messy labor. [44]

Robert Bea, a University of California engineering professor and an expert on offshore drilling, worked for Shell Oil on the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969; the Bay Marchand, LA, spill in 1970; and for the Mexican oil company Pemex on the huge Ixtoc spill in 1979. Bea said today's booms are better, and new materials absorb more oil than the straw that once was used, but in the years since those spills, the technology of cleanup hasn't changed substantially. For the most part, the only ways to get rid of the majority of the oil are old ones - corralling it, burning it, mopping it up and letting nature break it down. [45]

Oil spilled from the single-hulled oil tanker Prestige washes up on the beach as the sun rises in Caion, Northern Spain

Oil cleanup remains an inexact science fraught with guesswork for a number of reasons, including greater industry investment and emphasis on better drilling technologies, the difficulty of simulating massive deep-sea oil spills for controlled research, the uniqueness of each disaster, and a federal funding preference for research programs that promote oil and gas production over those that focus on safety and accident prevention. [46]

List of Visuals

1. Workers shovel oiled sand hit by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil
   Saul Loeb, Getty Images, 06-13-2010, Taken from ProQuest's eLibrary

2. Oil spreading north-east from the leaking Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BP_Oilspill_June25.2010.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

3. SOUDA BAY, Crete, Greece (July 23, 2008) An oil spill response team at U.S. Naval Support Activity deploys a "Harbour Buster" high-speed oil containment system
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:080723-N-0780F-002.jpg
   U.S. Navy photo by Mr. Paul Farley/Released
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

4. Skimming Oil
   Yingling, KRT News Graphics, 07-08-2010, Taken from ProQuest's eLibrary

5. Oil Spill Cleanup. EVTN: able to launch a voraxial separator unit for oil spill response
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W8_GpMz9nI
   YouTube, December, 2008
   back to article
6. An airplane applies dispersant to a streamer of oil
   http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/
   National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

7. A brown pelican, covered with oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon
   Saul Loeb, Getty Images, 06-15-2010, Taken from ProQuest's eLibrary

8. Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi document a dead Kemp's Ridley turtle that washed up on the beach
   Carolyn Cole, KRT Photos, 06-11-2010, Taken from ProQuest's eLibrary

9. Oil spilled from the single-hulled oil tanker Prestige washes up on the beach as the sun rises in Caion, Northern Spain
   Marco Di Lauro, Getty Images, 11-22-2002, Taken from ProQuest's eLibrary


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