u. s. COAST GUARD ARCTIC POLLUTION RESPOXSE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

LT Michele Fitzpatrick

United States Coast Guard Office of Research and Development

Washington, D.C. 20593

ABSTRACT

The discovery of oil and gas along the Alaskan coast has led to development and exploration on shore; offshore drilling on the continental shelf is certain to increase rapidly in the near future. The Coast Guard has the legislated responsibility for insuring effective oil spill response in these waters which may be ice-infested during all or part of the year. The objective of the Arctic Pollution Response Research and Development Project is to understand and predict the behavior and movement of oil spilled in the Arctic, develop methods to detect and monitor these oil spills, and conduct investigative research into countermeasures and cleanup technology for ice-infested regions to insure Coast Guard expertise as federal On-Scene Coordinator.

INTRODUCTION

In the event of an oil spill in United States waters, the Coast Guard predesignated On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) is responsible for ensuring that timely and adequate containment and removal actions are taken. In most cases, especially in the Arctic, responsible parties will take the appropriate response actions and the OSC will monitor these actions. If the responsible party's actions are nonexistant or inadequate, or when the responsible party is unknown, the OSC may initiate cleanup action using Federal pollution funds. The focus of the U. S. Coast Guard's Arctic Pollution Response Research and Development Project is to insure that the OSC has the background information and technical expertise necessary to perform these functions.

The total response t o an oil spill involves detection, surveillance, containment, recovery, transfer, storage, disposal, logistics, personnel support, and shoreline cleanup. Response to a spill in the Arctic is more complex than response to a similar spill in temperate waters. The reasons for

this are primarily environmental: for example, the Beaufort Sea is covered with ice most of the year, the water and air are almost always cold, and in the winter months there is no sunlight. The OSC needs to understand how oil behaves in the arctic environment, what makes spill response different here, and how to execute each of the response elements.

The technical approach for our R&D project is to divide the project into three groups according to the response elements being addressed, i.e. spill behavior and movement, detection and surveillance, and countermeasures and cleanup.

ARCTIC OIL SPILL BEHAVIOR

The spill behavior project element is directed toward understanding and predicting the behavior and movement of oil spilled in an arctic environment. There is a definite need for oil spill behavior and drift forecasting models for the Alaskan shelf waters. The problems of forecasting are greatly increased in Alaska because much of the coastal waters are ice-covered for varying portions of the year. On the Alaskan north slope, for example, the waters can be entirely ice-covered for nine months of the year. Even during "open season," the waters may have varying quantities of sea ice, and polar pack ice is never far from shore and can advance onto the shore at any time.

In addition to the unique (and sometimes severe) environmental conditions, there are logistics problems which make immediate and complete response to an oil spill in an ice-infested area difficult. For example, in the Arctic there are many miles of coastline with no roads, airports, or even toms. Oil spills, should they occur from drilling or tanker operations, may be difficult to reach and more difficult to clean up because of the lack of staging areas. Immediate response may sometimes be impossible. Thus, it is imperative to define the mechanisms of oil spreading for forecasting the movement of the oil for

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both short-term and long-term cases, as well as for varying ice and environmental conditions.

Our behavior and modeling work is being carried out primarily at the Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in Groton, Connecticut. The Center completed several basic research efforts studying oil weathering in the Arctic, oil spreading and movement in broken ice, oil pooling under ice, oil spill movement under open water conditions in the coastal and offshore regions of the Beaufort Sea, and the dynamics of ice breakup in Prudhoe Bay. We used these and other studies to develop a short-term model to predict oil spill behavior and movement in Prudhoe Bay and coastal areas of the Beaufort Sea. We recently completed a cooperative research effort with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOM), studying the behavior of o i l spilled under a solid ice cover both in the winter and during the spring thaw. This information is vital to the behavior portion of the model. We have a field experiment in Prudhoe Bay scheduled for August 1985 to assist us in the verification of the movement portion of the model in open water.

In 1983 we produced an "Environmental Atlas for the Beaufort Sea," which includes information on the oceanography, meteorology, ice seasons, and climatology of the region. We are presently working on a similar atlas for Norton Sound, and will probably follow with atlases for the other lease sale areas of Alaska. We believe that an understanding of the environmental conditons of an area will assist greatly in responding to an oil spill.

Another major effort was "A Field Guide for Arctic Oil Spill Behavior ," completed in 1984. T h i s is considered a follow-on to the Atlas. In the Atlas, we told the OSC what the environmental conditions were expected to be, and in the Field Guide we tell him how oil should behave when it interacts with that environment. The Field Guide is designed to provide the OSC with quick and easy access to spill behavior information, so that he can assess the threat of an oil spill to the environment and plan for effective response action. It includes information ?n arctic ice conditions, the physical properties of oil as it weathers, oil spill behavior in cold water and ice conditions, and spill retention potential for the Alaskan shoreline. The Guide then uses six spill scenarios to show the user how to apply the behavior information to solve real world problems.

Our efforts to date have primarily focused on the Beaufort Sea, especially the Prudhoe

Bay area. the oil companies start to explore the other waters surrounding Alaska, the Coast Guard OSC w i l l have to be familiar with the environmental conditions in those areas. He w i l l also have to have an understanding of how an oil spill may interact with the environment there.

ARCTIC OIL SPILL DETECTION AND SURVEILLANCE

The primary function of the OSC is to monitor the response to a spill, whether it is handled by the responsible party or the Coast Guard. In order to monitor the spill properly, the OSC should ideally know where all the oil is all the tee. This is even more difficult in the Arctic than in temperate waters, for the reasons mentioned earlier. The detection and surveillance project element focuses on developing techniques to detect oil spills in the arctic environment, define the extent of contamination, and monitor the subsequent movement of the spill.

There are several aspects to consider. Detection would include finding the original spill and determining its areal extent. Surveillance includes keeping track of the movement of the spill during cleanup operations, or possibly for long periods of time if cleanup work has to be suspended due to weather conditions.

One recent effort was a report discussing methods for tagging and tracking the long-term movement of an oil spill on or in the ice. Several techniques were addressed, including satellite-tracked buoys, visual markers, and transponder beacons that can be monitored by aircraft, ships, or ground parties. Each of these techniques has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the conditions. In any case, it will be important that the tagging be employed while the location of the oil is known.

One of the more difficult spills to detect is an oil spill under a solid ice cover. Various agencies in the United States and Canada have been investigating methods to do this. In 1981 the U.S. Coast Guard sponsored two studies to determine the feasibility of using electromagnetic and acoustic energy to detect oil spilled under a solid ice cover. The first study, performed at the U.S. Naval Surface Weapons Center, investigated using radar signals on the surface of the ice. There were several restraints on the system which still have not been resolved. Follow-on work is being performed in Canada by the Environmental Protection Service and Esso Resources Canada Limited. The second study, performed by the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington, looked at

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the feasibility of using acoustic sensors under the ice. While this method appears to be feasible, it would only work until the oil is encapsulated in the ice, which takes from 24 hours to five days, depending on the thickness of the ice and the weather conditions. We are currently doing a follow-on study to determine the cost-effectiveness of this system.

Future efforts may include investigating airborne surveillance systems for monitoring the extent and movement of oil spills in ice.

ARCTIC OIL SPILL COUNTEXMEASURES AND CLEANUP TECHNOLOGY

Ten to fifteen years ago, when much of the current oil spill response equipment was first being developed, the U.S. Coast Guard took a primary role in the development of the new equipment. Our current policy dictates that we no longer be involved in producing equipment, instead allowing the oil and spill response industries to take the lead. Although the Coast Guard does not need to develop new equipment for its own use, it does need to define and be familiar with state-of-the-art technology in order to perform its designated function as Federal OSC. As a result, our efforts in the countermeasures and cleanup area are primarily focused on technology assessment and cooperative research.

One of our major cooperative research partners for the past four years has been the Environmental Protection Service of Environment Canada. With them we have sponsored studies including the Baffin Island Oil Spill experiment, the burning of oil in broken ice and open water, the effectiveness of dispersants in cold water, and the feasibility of self-help countermeasures for tankers in arctic waters.

Other cooperative efforts have included the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mineral Management Service. These efforts so far have centered around work at -A’s Oil and Hazardous Material Simulated Environmental Test Tank (OHMSETT), and include in situ burning of oil in broken ice and the testing of a rope mop skimmer in broken ice.

Another project underway at this time i s an “Arctic O i l Spill Response Planning Guide .’* This is a follow-on to the Behavior Field Guide mentioned earlier. It is intended to provide the OSC with the information necessary to make the decisions involved with monitoring or directing the response to an arctic oil spill. Its sections consist of 1) detection and surveillance, including initial detection,

aerial surveillance, surface surveillance, satellite surveillance, tracking, and modeling; 2 ) initial response, including containment, burning, and dispersants; 3 ) recovery; 4 ) transfer; 5) storage; 6 ) disposal; 7 ) logistics, including transportation, communications, and equipment; 8 ) personnel support; and 9) shoreline cleanup. It will also include decision trees for planning the response to a spill. Finally, the Planning Guide will take the six spill scenarios developed in the Behavior Field Guide and expand them to include the elements of response.

The cases where the Coast Guard would have a primary role in response would be in a mystery spill, major blowout, or offshore tanker accident. We now have a study underway to determine what capability the Coast Guard should have in these situations.

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