Cold regions spill response

Abstract

As a part of its Arctic Pollution Response Research and Development Program, the U.S. Coast Guard in 1977 awarded a systems analysis contract to ARCTEC Incorporated to identify the pollution response system requirements for dealing with spills in ice-infested waters. A cold regions oil pollution response system was defined through an engineering and cost effectiveness analysis of sir oil spill scenarios, selected to encompass the broad range of oil spill and environmental conditions likely to be encountered offshore Alaska. Also identified were modifications to the system required to &end the response capability to the seasonally ice-infested waters of the lower 48 states, including the Great Lakes, the northern rivers, and the northern coastal regions. Projections were made of the behavior of the spilled oil in ice-infested waters, and oil spill response scenarios were developed for three levels of spill response. Three distinctly different types of spill response operations were identified: (1) for a thick, stable, level shorefast ice situation; (2) for a dynamic, hummocky, heavily concentrated broken ice situation; (3) for the case of light broken ice and open water. The presence of fee was found to aid response efforts in some cases and to hinder or preclude response efforts in others. This paper discusses the three types of spill response required for cold regions and reviews the six Alaskan and three lower 48 scenarios used to define the system requirements.