U.S. coast guard research and development program for hazardous chemical discharge response

Abstract

The U.S. Coast Guard's Office of Research and Development is presently conducting a program to develop equipment and methods for responding to discharges of hazardous chemicals into the waters of the United States. The program to ameliorate hazardous chemical discharges has been divided into six project areas. This paper will provide an overview of these six project areas as follows: 1. Prevention and Reduction: The development of techniques to prevent or reduce the discharge of a hazardous chemical. 2. Personnel Protection: The development of protective clothing, life support systems and personnel monitors for personnel responding to chemical discharges. 3. Detection, Identification, and Quantification: The development of techniques to allow response personnel to detect, identify and determine the concentration of hazardous chemical discharges. 4. Hazard Assessment Modeling: The development and refinement of mathematical models to predict the behavior of discharged hazardous chemicals. 5. Containment, Treatment, and Recovery: The development of hardware and methods to respond to a discharge and mitigate its environmental damage. 6. Disposal: The development of methods to dispose of chemicals which have been recovered. When completed, each of these project areas should provide the Coast Guard with additional capability to respond to hazardous chemical discharges.