boom should be made when they occur to avoid further damage and to 

 maintain the integrity and effectiveness of the boom. Since damage to 

 the boom often occurs when the boom is in the water or being deployed, 

 the capability to repair the boom in the water is desirable. This 

 capability can reduce the time and expense associated with pulling the 

 boom onto dry land to effect repairs or shipping it back to the shop or 

 manufacturer. The repairability of material can be measured in terms of 

 the type of adhesive, curing time, heat, and pressure required to bond 

 the material and also the strength developed by the bond. 



Cleanability. The material must be easily cleaned of petroleum 

 products, marine growth, or contaminants that might accumulate on the 

 material under operational conditions. Commercially available industrial 

 detergents and hot water must be used for cleaning without abrasive or 

 other adverse effects on the mechanical or physical properties of the 

 material. Cleaning is important for safe storage, to facilitate handling, 

 and to prolong the life of the boom. 



No standard tests are defined for measuring the cleanability of 

 materials but judgment can be based on observation of actual attempts to 

 clean the material. Also, the chemical resistance of the material to 

 the cleaning agents in the recommended concentrations could be used as a 

 measure of cleanability. 



Evaluation of the Materials 



The recommended minimum values and standard procedures for evaluat- 

 ing a material in terms of the preceding requirements are summarized in 

 Table 1. 



To evaluate materials in terms of these requirements each requirement 

 must be weighted relative to the others. Since the importance of a 

 requirement is a matter of judgment, individuals having expertise in the 

 area of oil spill containment were consulted to obtain their evaluation 

 of the relative weight of each requirement. As a result of this inquiry, 

 the requirements as originally proposed were modified: some were combined 

 and others added or eliminated to obtain the revised requirements. 



The last column in Table 1 lists the weighting value assigned to 

 each of the fence material requirements as a result of the inquiry. The 

 values total 100% and were established by averaging the individual 

 responses, modified where necessary to reflect the revisions. 



The requirement of resistance to petroleum products and non- 

 porosity were determined to be Go-No Go type requirements for fence 

 material. If a material does not meet either of these requirements it 

 is unacceptable for use as oil containment boom. These two requirements 

 are therefore multiplicative, rather than additive factors and have not 

 been assigned a weighted value. 



Material not meeting these two requirements may be acceptable as 

 flotation material if the design of the boom is such that the flotation 

 material does not come into direct contact with the oil and does not 

 actually serve a containment function. Under these circumstances these 

 requirements can be considered additive along with the other requirements. 



