Perth Petroleum Services Oil & Chemical Spill Equipment

Oil and fuel spills in wetlands

At PPS, we’re often asked by our customers to help design responses and techniques for incidents of an oil spill in an uncontrolled situation.

Spills (especially hydrocarbon) onto a roadway, into sumps or a condensate dam are always difficult to deal with - but none more difficult than an oil or fuel spill into wetlands.

Two members of the Perth Petroleum Services team recently attended a course with the US Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) about how to effectively deal this very aspect of spill response.

In short, the EPA recommends four techniques to clean up an oil or fuel spill in wetlands. They are:

1. Physical retrieval with hydrophobic absorbents. This involves using a combination of booms, pads and pillows to absorb areas of the spill that are free floating or pooled. Hydrophobic peat such as Global Peat can be mixed with soils to encapsulate the spill before physical removal. All absorbents used should always be removed, including loose absorbents such as peat.

   The disadvantage of cleaning up a spill in wetlands is that further damage to vegetation can occur as a result of the response. Access can be difficult in some wetland areas, therefore roads and paths may need to be cleared with heavy machinery to reach the spill site. Using boards or planks to traverse sensitive vegetation can help. We have used such techniques in Australia with spills in desert regions to protect heavily grassed areas.

2. In the United States, with approval from the EPA, burning can be used as a clean-up technique for spills in wetlands. Obviously this can only occur in non-public areas, coupled with essential air monitoring. The technique is not to be used destroy waste on site.

3. Washing/flushing with low-pressure hoses. This technique is also used in shoreline clean ups and involves using water to flush the spill into designated areas for retrieval. Recovery of the free oil is often with absorbent booms, however if larger quantities of oil are being released, mechanical recovery with skimmers can be used. Care must be taken not to wash away vegetation or create soil erosion.

4. Bioremediation is often used in areas of restricted or no public access. Some physical removal of the spill should occur with absorbents, after which the area is sealed to allow bioremediation to break down the remaining spill. Hydrocarbon-utilising bacteria can be sprayed over the spill site to spread up the bioremediation process.