Clean Up Techniques
The first technique was burning and it took place shortly after the spill. There were fire resistant booms attached between two ships. The two ships with the boom between them traveled through the main area of where the oil spill took place in the Prince William Sound. The purpose of the booms was to help reduce the spread of oil and pollution along the shorelines and to help with the thickness of the oil. The burning method ended up not working as planned so they moved onto another technique trying to clean up the oil spill.
The second technique that was used during the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was mechanical cleanup. There were skimmers that were available shortly after 24 hours of the spill. Skimmers are a device to help recover the oil from the water’s surface. Since the oil sat for over 24 hours the thickness of the oil ended up clogging the skimmers. It would take too long to get the skimmers fixed so they tried transferring the oil from temporary storage vessels into containers that were more permanent. It was a challenge to transfer the oil because of its weight and thickness.
The third technique that was used to clean up the spill was chemical dispersants. The purpose of the chemical dispersants is to help break down the oil in the water. A private company helped out by flying a helicopter over the Prince William Sound with dispersant buckets. Since there was no wave action to be found within the water, it could not help mix the chemical dispersant with the oil. The chemical dispersants were not effective so the technique was discontinued.
The workers turned to a popular technique after failing. They used hot water to clean the oil off the beaches. They used this specific technique until they learned that the hot water treatment was causing more damage than the oil. From spraying the hot water, the workers found out it was frying small organisms that lived among the beach areas.
