Behavior and persistence of spilled oil on shoreline

Conference · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7078195

Michel, J ^[1]

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1. Research Planning Inc., Columbia, SC (United States)

Recent oil spills have re-demonstrated the range of shoreline impacts that are possible from medium to large spills in the United States, i.e., the Exxon Valdez spill which significantly contaminated over 1000 km of shoreline in Alaska and the Mega Borg, which resulted in widely scattered tar balls over a small area. Immediate and total removal of stranded oil should not always be the primary objective. Instead, shoreline cleanup strategies developed for oil spills need to consider the persistence and short- to long-term persistence of stranded oil. There are several general guidelines on the persistence of stranded oil. High-energy shorelines are rapidly and effectively cleaned by natural processes, although there are micro-environments where oil tends to persist (wave shadows, supratidal zone, rock crevices, etc.). On sand and mixed sand and gravel beaches, oil tends to be buried below clean layers of sediment, but erosional/depositional cycles will result in oil removal, usually within one year. In sheltered environments (wetlands, tidal flats) oil will persist for long periods; therefore, oil removal is frequently required, though it is usually poorly implemented. Cobble/boulder beaches, while usually very complex, present a special problem. They can be found in a range of energy settings, with years between periods of storm activity. These beaches can hold large volumes of oil; they can be a source of long-term ({gt} one year) leaching and sheening; subsurface oil is very difficult to remove by surface treatment methods; and they have poorly understood sedimentation patterns, so it is difficult to predict rates of sediment reworking. Studies of recent oil spills have shown a need for shoreline-specific technologies for these types of beaches.

• OSTI ID: 7078195
• Report Number(s): CONF-910403-; CODEN: AABUD
• Journal Information: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States), Vol. 75:3; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), Dallas, TX (United States), 7-10 Apr 1991; ISSN 0149-1423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OIL SPILLS
CLEANING
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
COASTAL REGIONS
COASTAL WATERS
LAND POLLUTION CONTROL
SHORES
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
CONTROL
ECOSYSTEMS
POLLUTION CONTROL
SURFACE WATERS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
540320 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
540220 - Environment
Terrestrial- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)