Oil on the Waters: Modest Progress in Cleanup Technology

Abstract

In March 1967 the oil tanker Torrey Canyon rushed into the rocks off the southwest tip of England and ripped open. Some 100,000 tons of crude oil spewed into the sea. To save resort beaches in England and northern France, 2.5 million gallons of detergents were dumped into the waters and on the shores. Fifty thousand sea birds drowned in the oil or were poisoned by the detergents. Sudsy seawater killed seaweed, crabs, starfish and lobsters, and left countless creatures without legs and claws. Ultimately the British Royal Air Force bombed the hemorrhaging tanker. She sank beneath the sea. With soaring international demands for energy and petroleum transport, it was clear the Torrey Canyon would not be the last tanker to crash. Who would meet future disasters, and how? In the United States, the Federal Government and the oil and tanker industries launched efforts to devise effective and nontoxic techniques to clean up oil spills. Today, five years and millions of Federal and industrial dollars later, scientists in the field agree the results are beginning to show. Five years ago, about the best means of cleaning up oil was to put straw on it, then scoop up the oily straw *by hand or with pitchforks. Now industry -backed by government or industry funds-has devised an arsenal of oil cleanup chemicals. Thin-layer chemicals can be used to herd oil together and to thicken it, so it can be scooped from the water. Although straw is still widely used as an absorbent, because it is cheap and easily available, chemicals are available as absorbents too. Still other chemicals have been found that disperse oil throughout the water. Other chemicals show promise as oil-burning agents. If five years ago straw was the best means of picking up oil, the best means of containing oil before pickup was a hastily rigged Navy boom. Oil drums were fastened to each side of sections of plywood. A skirt hanging between the drums scooped oil off the water. Such a boom was makeshift and built on location after a spill occurred. Now booms are commercially built and available before a spill takes place. Skimmers have been devised to remove oil from the water after the oil has been contained with chemicals and a boom. Some skimmers are paddlewheels that skim thickened oil off the water. Others are conveyor belts, coated with absorbent materials. which dip into the water and pick up the oil. Still others are large metal disks that rotate down into the oil. The U.S. Coast Guard has almost finished developing booms for use on the high seas. It is now working on an air-delivery capability for booms. It is also developing high-sea oil-skimmer devices. They will be tested later this year. It is researching means of detecting oil spills electronically, rather than visually, from airplanes. Such a device could be used in all kinds of weather. Because of detergents' past disastrous effects on wildlife, the use of detergents for dispersing oil has fallen off greatly. Says L. P. Haxby of the Shell Oil Co. in Houston: 'When we first embarked on oil spill cleanup procedures through the American Petroleum Institute and the Coast Guard, people asked, 'Haven't you found a solution for oil spills yet?' Well, one of the first things we have learned is that there is no one, single solution . . . nor a single piece of equipment for every spill. What approach is taken to a spill depends on the cleanup equipment available at the nearest Coast Guard station or oil or tanker company headquarters. The Coast Guard is stockpiling equipment in various areas so that it can be flown to the scene of disaster. A lot of this equipment is just coming into inventory now, reports Robert J. Ketchel of Coast Guard headquarters in Washington. Some of it is still in the research and development phase. The Environmental Protection Agency has not required or recommended a particular cleanup approach 'because it depends on the location, types of equipment available, sea condition, weather, type of oil, and so forth, says Peter B. Lederman of EPA'S Edison, N.J., facility. But, he says, if at all possible, the EPA prefers that oil be contained and removed from the water rather than dispersed throughout EPA