Because oil spilled onto the water surface soon weathers to become difficult to work with, there’s typically little time to research less familiar countermeasures, such as solidifiers, dispersants, shoreline pretreatment agents, and elasticity modifiers. For this reason, responders rely heavily on the most familiar technology: booms and skimmers.

OSCs, well aware that it makes sense to include more useful tools in the toolbox, rather than fewer, requested assistance with assessing less familiar response options for potential use during responses. To meet their request, Regional Response Teams III and IV led development of a print guidebook, the Selection Guide for Oil Spill Applied Technologies (Vol. I). The print Selection Guide is designed to simplify the evaluation of non-conventional or "applied" and infrequently-used technologies for real-time oil spill response. The first edition was released in 19??, and the guide has since been updated a few times, most recently in June 2009.

The Selection Guide’s stated purpose is to “to simplify the evaluation of options for real-time response to actual oil spills.” It provides detailed information about 10 categories of less-familiar response technologies, as well as data about the products within those categories that are on the NCP Product Schedule (or that need not be listed, in the case of sorbents). It also provides a step-by-step process for determining which categories of technologies, and which specific products, might be useful in a given oil spill situation. The information in the guidebook is designed to be applicable nationwide within the US.

The Selection Guide for Oil Spill Response Countermeasures: History and Future

Benggio, Brad., Emergency Response Division, Office of Response and Restoration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bibliography

Responders recognize the value of the painstakingly developed information and logical decision process in the print Selection Guide. But the guide’s print format imposes two principal limitations: it’s time-consuming to complete the paper worksheets provided by the guide’s authors, and it’s not possible to update information in the guide or to add or remove products in a timely way.

To respond to the limitations of the print Selection Guide, an online, interactive version was proposed. The online Selection Guide is now under development, and scheduled for release in Spring 2010. Funding for development of the online Selection Guide is being provided by EPA.

1.Scientific and Environmental Associates, Inc., and Research Planning, Inc. Selection Guide for Oil Spill Response Countermeasures, Vol. I. Revision 5.0. June 2009.

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XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxResponders will be able to use the new Selection Guide online, or download it for use in places where Internet connectivity is limited.

The online Selection Guide automates the print guide’s step-by-step assessment procedures, greatly speeding up the process of assessing alternative technologies and reducing the chance for errors.

Editors will have passworded access to make a variety of kinds of updates to the online guide, including adding and removing products in response to updates of the NCP Product Schedule, and adjusting the logic of the assessment procedures, if needed. XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxUsers will have access to all the guidance information from the print guide, as well as links to related information online. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Introduction The Online Selection Guide

Figure 1. Workers on the Korean shoreline clean up oil spilled by the Hebei Spirit, 2007. Two applied technology products—bioremediation agents and dispersants—were used during the response to this spill. NOAA photo.

Figure 2. Decision aid from the print Selection Guide, used as a reference when completing a worksheet to determine the suitability of applied technologies to a given response or drill.

Online guide SCREENSHOT

Online guide SCREENSHOT

Applied Technology Categories in the Selection Guide

Physical countermeasures:Sorbents

Chemical countermeasures:Bioremediation agentsDispersantsElasticity modifiersEmulsion treating agentsShoreline pre-treatment agentsSolidifiersSurface collecting agentsSurface washing agents

In Situ Burning:In situ burning

Figure 3. Screenshot from the online Selection Guide, showing screen for entering information about the response.

Figure 4. Screenshot from the online Selection Guide, showing ranking of technology categories.