Oil spills happen sporadically and vary in magnitude. They can be as minor as small spills related to shipping activities within ports or as major as large-scale incidents in open seas caused by accidents involving oil tankers or the discharge of ballast water. The transportation of oil through pipelines and offshore oil and gas exploration introduce further factors that need to be taken into account by governments, coastal communities, coastal resource users, and stakeholders when planning for the future.

Course Objectives:

Integrating the expertise and resources of the public and private sectors to provide quality education and training in the management of petroleum products, hazardous materials, and chemical spills to national and international practitioners, managers, and executives in the public sector and private industries.

Who Should Attend?

Operational Responders, who have some experience in oil spills and require a more detailed understanding of 1st response operations.
Field supervisory personnel responsible for undertaking on-site clean up operations.
Members of emergency team that would support oil spill response effort.
Those responsible for preparing a company contingency plans.
Those responsible for the transportation and storage of oil inland.

Course Outlines:

Basics of Oil Spill Response

Learn the basics of oil spill response operations. This course begins with a description of the basic properties of oil and how it interacts with water. The basic principles of oil spill response equipment are illustrated including how, when, and where the equipment is used. Participants study the use of support vehicles and their role in the response operation.

The wide variety of environmental concerns associated with oil spills is reviewed and discussed. Participants are introduced to communications equipment, response strategy, and the importance and means of tracking time, equipment, personnel, costs, and results. The module finishes with an overview of oil spill management and safety,

Introduction to Spill Response
Fate and Effects of spilled oil
Spill Assessment
Tools & Techniques for Containment, Diverting, and Recovery of Oil
Equipment Maintenance
In-Situ Burning
Dispersant Application and Response Considerations
Shoreline Assessment and Cleanup
Transfer/Storage & Disposal
Site Safety
Mechanical Containment & Recovery
Waste Management
Oil Sampling & Evidence Gathering
Wildlife Response and Habitat Presentation
Computer Tools (Trajectory models, GIS, etc.)
Documentation
Practical Response Exercises

Inland Spill Response

Spill response in inland areas offers a series of challenges sometimes quite different from marine or coastal spills. Highlighted issues often include priorities and protection of downstream water users, populated areas, parks, and fisheries. Inland waters can also be highly variable, from marshes to fast-flowing streams, rivers, and lakes. Special considerations, strategies, and tactics are discussed for these types of settings, using examples from actual spills.

Oil Properties
Physical Properties
Oil Groups
Toxicity and Persistence
Fate and Behavior of Spills on Land
Soils and surface permeability
Topography and Vegetation
Groundwater
Health and Safety
First Responder Safety
Public Health & Safety
Sampling & Monitoring
Containment and Recovery Strategies and Tactics on Land
Surface Tactics
Subsurface Tactics
Inland Waterways
Cleanup and Spill Response Equipment
Cleanup Goals and Endpoints
Tactics and Techniques
Spill Equipment
Waste Handling and Disposal

Media and Public Relation

Spills receive serious attention from the media and the public. It’s not enough to know the facts. Learn how to handle aggressive reporting that shapes public reaction. Have an effective plan in place.

Have trained spokespersons ready and able to handle aggressive reporting

Participants will be provided with guidelines for communications and hands-on opportunities to prepare media briefings and to conduct a media conference.

This interactive day session includes:

Understanding the media and their motivation
Building a professional relationship with the reporter
Maintaining balance and agenda during the interview
How to how to prepare and protect yourself
Tricks of the trade that only a reporter knows!
Common mistakes made under stress
How to respond to a variety of question types
How to develop key messages
Hands-on Practice
Emphasis on common everyday language

Regulations / New Technologies

Remote Sensing and oil spill response

Space bore Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, such as RADARSAT-1 and ENVISAT, are routinely used for oil spill management applications. For many end-users, however, there is not a clear understanding of how to exploit SAR data to meet oil spill management information needs.

This presentation will introduce the practical application of SAR data for oil spill management. In the context of this presentation, oil spill management implies the surveillance of oil spills arising from catastrophic events such as tanker incidents and illegal bilge dumping.

This presentation will provide an introduction to radar remote sensing and the concepts underlying the detection of oil on the ocean surface. Constraints such as satellite orbit which dictates re-visit frequency, environmental limitations such as ocean-surface wind speed which impacts detection, and dealing with false-positives such as algae blooms will be discussed.

An overview of information extraction methods including both computer-based and visual techniques will be discussed. In addition, techniques to derive other information from the SAR image germane to oil spill management (e.g. surface wind speed/direction) will be presented.

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