Great Moments in Spill Response

Many moons ago, I did spill response as a civilian for the Department of the Navy in San Diego. I was the guy they called for a 2,000 gallon jet fuel spill or a two gallon diesel spill. I've pretty much seen it all. I now train the responders.

One of the things that always irritated me was the narrow focus on the spill. For several gallons of fuel that entered a storm drain and perhaps the bay, we would mobilize five to ten people to do the clean-up.

A spill of that small a magnitude would generally disperse very quickly and not bring any harm to fish or animals. What I'm getting at is that the overwhelming response to a small issue ended up costing thousands of dollars for a meager benefit.

What made me think of this is this post by Miss Kelly:

Squaring the Boston Globe points out the absurdity of a emergency spill response on the Southeast Expressway in Boston earlier this week. The traffic delay (4-12/ hours!) caused by the cleanup no doubt resulted in enormous emissions of petroluem hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, all in order to prevent several gallons of diesel fuel from getting into the Boston Harbor. Not so smart.....

Of course it's absurd. 40 gallons of diesel contributed to not only air issues but massive amounts of lost productivity of those stuck in traffic.

Granted, the fuel gets slick and it was wet, but there are much bet means and methods to clean a small spill up.