Environmental Response

SHORELINE OPERATIONS

The greatest environmental damage occurs when the oil impacts the shoreline. Various techniques can be used in cleaning up shoreline environments. Techniques include high pressure washing, steam washing, physical removal of oil by shovels or graders or the used vacuum systems. In some cases, the oil is left to degrade naturally since cleanup operations could be more harmful to the shoreline environment.

(Workers use shovels to manually remove oil from impacted shorelines.)

(Workers use high pressure water to "wash" the oil from the shoreline and back into the water. The oil is then contained in booms and is recovered using skimmers or vacuum systems.)

 (Graders can be used to scrape oil from sandy beaches. This method, however, produces a lot of waste.)

 (Vacuum systems are being used here to remove oil collected in this shoreline environment.)

 (The oil is left alone to degrade naturally.)