Ensure Rapid Response Time for Effective Spill Control

When petroleum spills happen, every minute is critical. Especially when that spill hits a body of water.  Not only does it spread exponentially faster, the potential for impact to the environment is much greater.

We have all seen it. A few drops of oil or fuel hit a body of water, and the sheen spreads like wildfire. What may have only been a few drops, looks like a few gallons, due to the surface area it covers. Now, what happens if those few drops were hundreds or thousands of barrels? In the blink of an eye, the spill could cover acres of water or travel miles downstream.

In this scenario, time is money. As soon as the oil hits the water, the clock starts. The effectiveness of oil spill response always lies in the time it takes from the initial spill until it is contained.

On top of this, conventional methods for containing and cleaning up these sorts of events do not help this problem. Traditionally, responding to spills on water requires large, bulky equipment and trained personnel. It may take hours before trained personnel can respond. And, that is just to get them on site. Add to that the time it takes to deploy their equipment, once the spill has had an hour or two to spread.

Because bulk liquid terminals are often located along major bodies of water, they’re at a particular risk of spills spreading due to the volume of petroleum product they are handling and their location. In addition, a lot of these locations are remote and difficult to reach quickly. If there are personnel on site, it may only be one or two individuals, who are not trained to be oil spill response professionals.

Ultimately, a lot of companies are making sure that they have plans and equipment in place in order to provide the best possible response – however, a lot of these limitations prevent them from being effective during the first hour of the spill. On the other hand, if responders can get equipment in the water faster and stop the spread of oil, they can drastically reduce damage, use less resources, and improve clean up effectiveness.

Investigating and adopting new technology that can potentially boost overall effectiveness can be key to moving industry standards forward and promoting safety wherever possible. Not to mention, limit the cost and damage of a spill that has reached a waterway.

Various technologies have been developed in recent years that can quickly help to limit the damage of a spill that has reached a body of water. Addressing the downfalls of traditional products, these new technologies:

Most spill response materials are bulky and take up too much space and the first person on the scene rarely has enough supplies to hold the spill in check. So, the spill spreads until help arrives.

To solve the problem, product developers at HalenHardy took a novel approach. ‘We’ve always known that bulky spill control products took up too much space to be stored in vehicles and equipment. We decided to search for oil/ fuel sorbent materials that were able to be compressed by at least 75%,’ notes HalenHardy CEO Donny Beaver. ‘The sorbent also had to rebound to its original size once unpacked.’ After an exhaustive hunt, the team found the ideal fiber compound that enabled the users to store 400% to 1,000% more materials than traditional spill products.

For example, the patented SpillBoa^® Absorbent Boom is a 5-inch by 25-foot ‘flat boom’ that coils up into a compact 16” diameter, and the roll weighs just four pounds. Its flat profile allows more surface contact, which helps each SpillBoa^® barrier absorb oils/fuels 300% to 500% faster than traditional ‘overstuffed’ booms and socks. Plus, the innovative design holds back many more gallons of spilled material until cleanup crews arrive. SpillBoa^® barrier also floats to contain oil spills on water.

HARBO Technologies released a product in 2018 that overcomes many of the problems associated with traditional containment boom and helps to tackle the critical few minutes after a spill occurs. The T-Fence oil spill first response system enables companies to contain spills faster and stop the spills from spreading. The product is a lightweight, portable boom that is packaged in cartridges the size of suitcases. Each section is 82 feet and weighs 50 pounds, making it compact and manageable for a single person to carry and two people to deploy. The T-Fence can be used for any size spill because each 82-foot section is fastened with connectors on each end that can be connected during deployment.

The T-Fence system is lightweight and compact as it is stored flat inside the cartridge prior to deployment. As soon as it hits the water, it expands to a 12.5-inch system – a 4.5-inch draft above the water and 8-inch skirt below. The 82-foot boom is built of small sections that are connected together with flexible material, enabling it to easily follow the curvature of the water. In other words, it doesn’t fight the waves, but rather rides them. The above and below water sections, along with its unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic design make the T-Fence a lightweight, portable and easy-to-use boom with equally heavy-duty containment capabilities.

Traditionally, when a spill reached a ditch or stream, a lot of times it would require responders to build a traditional underflow dam. This typically consisted of a lot of sandbags and dirt, pipes and significant manpower. The time it would take to construct meant that crews had to get far enough ahead of the spill, in order to have enough time to build the dam before the spill spread further downstream. The Water-Gate Underflow Dam solves all of these problems and gives responders a simple and effective tool to rapidly dam up streams, small rivers and ditches. Key attributes include: