How Do You Contain Spilled Oil?
Diverse Methods Used For Spill Containment on Beaches, Open Sea, and Underwater
Oil spill containment is accomplished through a lot of different methods, and naturally the question is whether the oil spill is on land, on water, or underneath the water as is the case with the BP gulf oil disaster. In this particular case, the spill is coming from a broken pipe that leaks oil into plumes underwater, and the oil rises to the surface where it then floats toward beaches and marshes. As a result, multiple oil containment menthods are used.
One kind of spill containment involves containment booms, which are long connected pieces of floating material that either absorbs the oil or holds it in place to prevent it from getting onto the shore. Oil within these booms can either be skimmed off, burned, or allowed to evaporate over time. There are mesh booms, booms containing human hair, and booms with natural and synthetic materials designed to capture the oil from the water.
Other oil spill containment is done with absorbents or dispersants that can either lock in the oil or break it down into smaller particles. With a problem like the BP oil spill, the volume of oil affecting waters and beaches is so high that it may not be feasible to capture it all or there may not be sufficient dispersant.
At the site of the spill itself (in this case, thousands of feet underwater) spill containment becomes more problematic. Originally, a blowout preventer should have stopped the oil, but for reasons yet unexplained this did not activate. Containment domes have been tried in order to collect the leaking oil, but hydrates (gas ices) prevented this from happening. Techniques nicknamed “Top Kill” (sending mud through the preventer to try and clog the leak) and “Junk Shot” (using golf balls and other materials to clog valves) have not worked either. The “Cut and Cap” method appears to have had some success in siphoning off a portion of leaking oil, but reportedly the high pressure of the leak prevents the job from being 100% effective. Eventually, relief wells should stop the leak sometime in August 2010.
In the Gulf Oil Disaster, fishing boats are also being used to contain spills and more booms are being created. Several different companies are trying out technologies to absorb oil and break it down.
Notes and Special Information
Special note: As always it costs a lot less to prevent a spill than contain one, and it doesn't do much for your public image, whether you're a large oil company scrambling to stop a leak, or a politician who can't do much about it but still has to look like he is trying. No matter what happens, life is likely to be a lot less fun over at the Minerals Management Service from now on.