Sooner or later the algae dies, drops off the rocks, flies blow it, and 

 another situation occurs. Additionally, the oil on the beaches was attacked 

 by the dispersants. The dispersants caused the oil to penetrate the sand 

 column, lubricating each particle of sand and causing the particles to 

 separate from each other. Consequently, the beach lost its integrity and 

 became quick. As a direct result of the use of dispersants, the spring tides 

 carved out immense sections of beaches. 



The same situation occurred following the casualty of the tanker, Ocean 

 Eagle, in San Juan where hotel owners had to replace, at $15.00 to $20.00 per 

 yard, some of the manmade beaches when dispersants had been used in that area. 

 Since then, several generations of dispersants have been manufactured. Most 

 assuredly, these dispersants are less toxic. They do, however, represent an 

 additional pollutant when applied to an oil spill. 



I wrote the dispersant policy for this country in 1968. Because I was 

 privileged to have worked in a wildlife and fisheries unit, I understood this 

 country's dedication and agreement to protect migratory waterfowl. One of 

 the tenets regarding dispersants allows for their use when wildlife migratory 

 waterfowl species are in danger. Another provision permits their use when 

 personal safety is threatened and fire occurs. At that point, the 0SC may 

 prescribe these materials for fire control and safety rather than oil pollu- 

 tion control . 



Since the policy was written, there has been a major effort in the 

 country to produce good surface barriers, known as booms. The U.S. Coast 

 Guard has been the most successful in developing an open sea containment 

 boom that will withstand more than 1 knot of current with which most surface 

 booms are confronted. In other words, the oil is stripped underneath the 

 boom in 1 to 3 knot currents. Most booms fail at greater than the 1 knot 

 current. 



In three cases of wild wells off the coast of Louisiana, dispersants 

 were used as water was being applied from barges onto the burning platforms 

 to try to keep them from completely oxidizing below the surface of the water. 

 One platform had 20 production slots, 20 producing wells, 7 of which were on 

 fire. While the oil burned (about 80 percent of it probably would burn), we 

 tendered booms down wind with tugs in a "Y" formation. The oil was collected 

 in the "Y" configuration and was skimmed from the surface of the water onto a 

 barge. The material that was recovered was placed on a storage barge which 

 was tethered to the skimmer barge. It was a very cumbersome operation and 

 was moderately successful. I say this today because there is no country that 

 can absolutely contain and recover all of the oil spilled on the high seas or 

 in fast flowing streams. The technology simply does not exist. 



The purpose of the Regional Response Team (RRT) going into these matters 

 of priority is to cut the problem into workable size pieces so we can deter- 

 mine the location of that amount of oil that can be safely recovered. At this 

 point, we still know more "do nots" than "do's" in spill containment. 



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