Sand Blasting. Sand blasting was used at the Santa Barbara oil 

 spill to remove oil from a rip rap rock wall. It was reported to be 

 slow, but it was the only process that effectively removed the oil stains 

 from the large rocks. To minimize the amount of sand blasting, the excess 

 oil was first removed by hydraulic process. The sequence of operations 

 was: 



Manual removal of debris 



Washing with pressurized water 



Sand blasting 



Using this process, a worker could clean a strip of rock beach 60 to 

 80 feet by 8 feet in a day's time [4]. This process is slow and costly 

 [12]. 



Hydraulic Dispersal. High-pressure water jets have been used for 

 oil removal. In dispersing the spilled oil from the Tomano, a boat- 

 mounted monitor nozzle supplied with water at 200 psig was able to remove 

 oil from piers and piling in the vicinity of the spill [10]. 



Mixing and Burying On- Site . Heavy deposits with low penetration 

 have been manually removed and deposited in trenches at the back of 

 the beach. Where light contamination is widespread, mechanical equip- 

 ment has been used to decontaminate a beach by; (1) Promote evaporation 

 (for lighter oils such as Number 2 fuel); (2) Enhance biological degra- 

 dation (for heavy oils and residue of light oils); and, (3) Dilute 

 remaining contaminated materials to acceptable proportions. 



For light oil, instant and deep penetration can occur. The only 

 effective method of decontaminating this type beach is to expose the 

 contaminated material to sunlight and wind as much as possible. It can 

 be done by either a harrowing plow or a beach cleaning machine. 



This method has been also used in cases involving heavier oils 

 to break up patches of the oil and mix them with sand [20] . The process 

 improves the appearance of the beach and speeds the biological degrada- 

 tion, evaporation and emulsification of the oil. 



Burning . At the Santa Barbara spill, burning of oil and straw on 

 the beach was attempted, but the procedure was discontinued due to 

 excessive smoke and odors [4] . 



A high intensity flame was used to remove adhering oil from rocks, 

 but the procedure was clumsy and hazardous. Severe spalling occurred 

 on the surface of the rock resulting in a hazard to the operators and 

 disfigurement of the environment [7,8]. Burning accumulated oil deposits 

 on the beach has seldom been successful due to poor ignition and difficulty 

 in maintaining combustion. The smoke and odor produced limit the use 

 of such procedure. 



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