INTRODUCTION 



"Utility equipment", as used in this report, refers to utility 

 boats, flattop boats, mooring systems, sorbent dispensing systems, 

 power assistance units for boom deployment and retrieval, and various 

 types of connectors, shackles, and lines required during the cleanup 

 of an oil spill in harbor areas. For a successful cleanup of an oil 

 spill, the utility equipment must be compatible with itself and with 

 the booms and skimmers. In addition, systematic procedures must be 

 used for the deployment and retrieval of all oil spill cleanup 

 equipment, including the utility equipment. The purpose of this 

 evaluation was to develop procedures for deployment and retrieval 

 of the various items of equipment, to suggest improvements in designs 

 where desirable, to point out precautions that should be observed in 

 their use during an actual oil spill removal operation, and to estimate 

 manpower requirements for operation of the utility equipment. 



A preliminary draft of the proposed test program for the utility 

 equipment was forwarded to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command 

 (NAVFAC) via reference 1 for their comments and approval. NAVFAC 

 comments, reference 2, were incorporated in the revised plan, 

 reference 3 . The descriptions of the utility boats and the flattop 

 boat which were purchased for evaluation by the Civil Engineering 

 Laboratory (CEL) were forwarded to NAVFAC via reference 4. 



NAVFAC completed some of the tests described in reference 3 

 through a contract with the Naval Weapons Engineering Support Activity 

 (NAVWESA) , as noted in reference 5, which necessitated a reduction in 

 scope of CEL's test plans to eliminate duplication of effort. The final 

 revision, reference 6, included additional NAVFAC comments received 

 via reference 7. 



The detailed plan for the test program, which was conducted in 

 Port Hueneme harbor is presented in Appendix A. This report describes 

 the test program, the results of the tests completed during this 

 evaluation , and the procedures used for deployment and retrieval of 

 various items of equipment. Deficiencies in equipment, when observed, 

 have also been pointed out in this report. This report complements 

 the observations and recommendations reported in reference 8. 

 Disagreements in recommendations of reference 8 and those developed 

 during this test program have been pointed out. 



BACKGROUND 



CEL has been evaluating oil spill cleanup equipment under the 

 Harbor Oil Spill Removal/Recovery Systems Program. During Phase I of 

 this program, completed in FY-73, detailed information was obtained 

 from manufacturers of equipment for the containment, removal, storage 

 and transfer, and separation functions. The selected items of equipment 

 were then subjected to a test and evaluation program to determine the 

 best equipment for each function. 



