text:
Oil Spill Response Technologies
In addition to exploring the viability of an ecosystem services approach to damage assessment and approaches to measuring and increasing the resiliency of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) ecosystem, the committee was also charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the various spill response technologies used during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill and, where possible, the effect of those technologies on GoM ecosystem services (Task 6 of the Statement of Task; see Chapter 1). Figure 4.1 illustrates the U.S. government's estimate of the fate of the spilled oil.
Given the magnitude, location, and depth of the DWH oil spill, multiple response technologies were applied at scales never before attempted. The goal of response efforts was to contain, remove, and remediate the oil at sea prior to its transport into sensitive wetland and intertidal regions (where cleanup is particularly difficult and costly) by employing a wide array of technologies, including mechanical operations to contain and recover the spilled oil, chemical treatments to disperse oil before it reached sensitive coastal habitats, and a number of shore-based mitigation strategies. In the case of chemical dispersants, the 1.8 million U.S. gallons used in surface and subsurface applications (Federal Interagency Solutions Group, 2010) elicited public concerns about their potential impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide.
To prevent oil from making landfall, several berms and reaches were constructed near shore in Louisiana at a cost of $220 million (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011). To clean oil from beaches, sand washing and surf washing were performed. To physically remove oil from marshes, manual labor, floating machinery, and manual cropping of oiled vegetation were employed.
Natural processes, such as abiotic weathering and microbial degradation, also played a major role in oil removal. The monitoring of natural recovery processes after an oil spill without active intervention (natural attenuation) must be considered a valid response option under certain circumstances. If oil has impacted a sensitive shoreline such as a wetland, which precludes the use of invasive cleanup operations, then natural attenuation would be the response of choice once accessible floating oil has been removed using absorbents. For areas in which a spill is logistically inaccessible for reasons of remoteness (e.g., the Arctic), stormy weather, or lack of equipment and manpower, natural attenuation might be the only option available.
This chapter reviews the suite of spill response technologies used during the DWH oil spill event, discusses how they were applied in response to the spill, presents the effectiveness and risks associated with their use, and, where possible, assesses their potential impacts on the GoM ecosystem and its services. The discussion begins with potential responses at sea that can
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 71
C hapter F O U R
Oil Spill Response Technologies
In addition to exploring the viability of an ecosystem services approach to damage assess-
ment and approaches to measuring and increasing the resiliency of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM)
ecosystem, the committee was also charged with evaluating the effectiveness of the various
spill response technologies used during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill and, where
possible, the effect of those technologies on GoM ecosystem services (Task 6 of the Statement
of Task; see Chapter 1). Figure 4.1 illustrates the U.S. government's estimate of the fate of the
spilled oil.
Given the magnitude, location, and depth of the DWH oil spill, multiple response technolo-
gies were applied at scales never before attempted. The goal of response efforts was to contain,
remove, and remediate the oil at sea prior to its transport into sensitive wetland and intertidal
regions (where cleanup is particularly difficult and costly) by employing a wide array of tech-
nologies, including mechanical operations to contain and recover the spilled oil, chemical treat-
ments to disperse oil before it reached sensitive coastal habitats, and a number of shore-based
mitigation strategies. In the case of chemical dispersants, the 1.8 million U.S. gallons used in
surface and subsurface applications (Federal Interagency Solutions Group, 2010) elicited public
concerns about their potential impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide.
To prevent oil from making landfall, several berms and reaches were constructed near
shore in Louisiana at a cost of $220 million (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon
Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011). To clean oil from beaches, sand washing and surf washing
were performed. To physically remove oil from marshes, manual labor, floating machinery, and
manual cropping of oiled vegetation were employed.
Natural processes, such as abiotic weathering and microbial degradation, also played a
major role in oil removal. The monitoring of natural recovery processes after an oil spill without
active intervention (natural attenuation) must be considered a valid response option under
certain circumstances. If oil has impacted a sensitive shoreline such as a wetland, which pre-
cludes the use of invasive cleanup operations, then natural attenuation would be the response
of choice once accessible floating oil has been removed using absorbents. For areas in which
a spill is logistically inaccessible for reasons of remoteness (e.g., the Arctic), stormy weather, or
lack of equipment and manpower, natural attenuation might be the only option available.
This chapter reviews the suite of spill response technologies used during the DWH oil spill
event, discusses how they were applied in response to the spill, presents the effectiveness and
risks associated with their use, and, where possible, assesses their potential impacts on the
GoM ecosystem and its services. The discussion begins with potential responses at sea that can
OCR for page 71
FIGURE 4.1 Deepwater Horizon oil budget calculator. SOURCE: Federal Interagency Solutions Group, 2010.
prevent adverse impacts, moves to potential responses on and near the shore that can prevent
adverse impacts, and then moves to methods to treat impacted shoreline habitats. The final
R02473 fate of oil in the marine environment.
section deals with natural attenuation—the natural
bitmapped, uneditable
Understanding of the efficacy of response technologies used during the DWH oil spill is
rapidly evolving, and papers and reports continue to be published. The results presented in this
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
chapter may be verified, challenged, or negated by further findings. The extrapolation of results
from lab-based studies to ecological relevance is tenuous at times, but lab-based studies do
provide information about the potential cause and level of effect under certain circumstances.
Studies of long-term changes in populations and community structure and function under the
Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) remain undisclosed or have not been com-
pleted. Given these constraints, the committee acknowledges that it may never be possible to
fully understand how some technologies have affected ecosystem processes and functions.
Chemical oil dispersants are proprietary mixtures of surfactants and solvents that are
applied directly to an oil spill in order to reduce the natural attractive forces within the oil. The
use of chemical oil dispersants offshore can be effective in preventing heavy oiling of sensitive
coastal environments, such as beaches and wetlands, and in mitigating risks associated with
marine and terrestrial wildlife coming into direct contact with a surface oil slick. Some research-
ers (Lehr et al., 2010) have estimated that the use of dispersants helped to keep 500,000 barrels
of the DWH oil away from the highly productive and sensitive coastal areas, but there is no
feasible way to verify this estimate.
When an oil slick is sprayed with dispersant and exposed to mixing energy, typically
from wave action, some of the oil is broken up into small droplets, which may then become
entrained in the water column (Li et al., 2008, 2009a,b; Lunel, 1995). Because the chemically
dispersed oil droplets may be small enough to be neutrally buoyant, diffusion and advection
transport processes are expected to dilute the plume over a large volume to concentrations
below toxicity threshold limits—a key objective for the use of dispersants. Furthermore, as mi-
crobial degradation of oil spilled at sea primarily occurs at the oil-water interface, oil biodegra-
dation rates should be enhanced, provided that the dissolved oil concentration is not so large
as to be toxic to the microbes. At the large scale, the overall biodegradation rate is increased
when dispersants are used effectively (Venosa and Holder, 2007; Venosa and Zhu, 2003). In
addition, small droplets enhance dissolution of soluble and semivolatile compounds into sur-
rounding waters, resulting in fewer airborne volatiles, which enhances safety for cleanup work-
ers. However, one consequence of dispersant use is that oil concentrations may increase in the
water column and potentially increase exposure for pelagic species.
inding 4.1. Chemical dispersants have long been applied to oil spills to break up oil into
smaller droplets. From a purely physical perspective, chemical oil dispersants can reduce oil
concentrations at the surface by increasing horizontal and vertical mixing of the oil. This tends
to enhance biodegradation and mitigate the adverse effects of the oil at the surface including
the reduction of vapors (thus enhancing the safety of response personnel). However, the overall
volume of ocean impacted by the oil will increase, which may have adverse effects especially
for subsurface biota.
OCR for page 71
Use of Dispersants During the DWH Oil Spill Response
Approval and Monitoring of Dispersant Application
About 1.8 million gallons of dispersants were used during the DWH oil spill response. Both
product formulations used in the GoM—Corexit 9527 and 9500—were approved by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the National Contingency Plan for the treatment
of oil spills. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report (CDC, 2010) concluded that
"because of the strict guidelines that must be followed to utilize dispersants, it is unlikely that
the general public will be exposed (directly) to (the) product." The report further stated that "in-
gredients are not considered to cause chemical sensitization; the dispersants contain proven,
biodegradable and low toxicity surfactants."
The use of chemical dispersants at the DWH oil spill site was regulated under the Clean Wa-
ter Act. During the spill response, approximately 1.8 million gallons of Corexit brand chemical
oil dispersant were applied (Figure 4.2): 1.07 million gallons of Corexit 9527 and 9500A at the
surface and 772,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 via subsurface injection (Federal Interagency Solu-
tions Group, 2010). Figure 4.3 shows the geographical area where approximately 90 percent of
the aerial surface dispersant spraying occurred.
FIGURE 4.2 Cumulative surface and subsurface dispersant use by day of spill response.
SOURCE: Federal Interagency Solutions Group, 2010.
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
FIGURE 4.3 Region in which 90 percent of aerial dispersant spray passes occurred. SOURCE: Created by
O'Brien's Response Management.
Dispersant Application Methods
bitmapped, uneditable
Chemical dispersants are most often sprayed directly onto a surface oil slick from an
airplane or ship. During the DWH oil spill response, chemical oil dispersants were also injected
directly into the stream of oil and gas flowing from the damaged wellhead located 1,522 m
below the surface of the ocean. The impacts of these application methods are discussed in
detail below.
Subsurface Injection of Dispersant at the Wellhead One of the most innovative and controversial
aspects of the immediate response to the DWH oil spill was the injection of 770,000 gallons of
Corexit 9500 at the wellhead. Some experts questioned the necessity of injecting dispersants
at the wellhead to keep some of the oil from reaching the surface. A plume of oil formed at
depths between 1,100 and 1,200 m below the surface (Reddy et al., 2011). Some researchers
(e.g., Peterson et al., 2012) have suggested that the subsurface dispersants had little impact in
dispersing the spill or preventing oil from reaching the surface. They argue that the turbulence
OCR for page 71
in the oil jet was sufficient to induce massive dispersion. They offer anecdotal evidence from
the BP videos taken at the wellhead during the DWH spill that the dispersant injection wand
sometimes missed the main oil plume, therefore making the dispersant ineffective.
Paris et al. (2012) argue that the application of subsurface dispersants did little to alter the
vertical distribution of oil. However, their argument depends heavily on the use of an algorithm
to estimate the oil droplet size that is based on oil-in-water emulsions with debatable rel-
evance to the blowout problem. Furthermore, their calculated droplet size for the DWH oil spill
in the absence of dispersant is so small that it could not explain the observed surface slick that
formed immediately above the well.
The American Petroleum Institute (2012) provides an argument for the efficacy of sub-
surface dispersants. The Institute provides aerial photographs taken during the DWH oil spill
that show that the surface slick nearly disappeared when subsurface dispersant injection was
initiated, then reappeared when the injection was stopped. Other evidence for the efficacy of
subsurface dispersant use is provided by Johansen et al. (2013) and Brandvik et al. (2013), who
describe studies of droplet size in simulated blowout plumes conducted in a 6-m laboratory
tank. Their results show roughly a threefold decrease in modal droplet size when dispersant is
applied at ratios used in the DWH oil spill. From the laboratory data, they develop an algorithm
for droplet size based on a modified Weber law that accounts for the effects of dispersant. The
algorithm gives a reasonable fit to their laboratory studies as well as several other relevant
studies. This algorithm suggests that dispersant application in the DWH oil spill dramatically re-
duced the droplet size. As discussed earlier in this chapter, the formation of smaller oil droplets
would enhance oil biodegradation rates.
Of course, even if subsurface dispersant application does keep more oil below the surface,
the concern is that dispersing the oil will simply increase the concentration of bioavailable oil
in one environmental compartment, the water column, and decrease it in another, the shore-
line. Despite this obvious tradeoff, the Presidential Oil Spill Commission concluded that disper-
sant application had reduced the overall risks associated with the spill (National Commission
on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011). The alternative to using
dispersants would have been to allow additional oil from the Macondo wellhead to impact
GoM coastal marshes and beaches.
Dispersant Effectiveness The effectiveness of a dispersant for the treatment of oil spilled at sea
is largely dependent on a number of physicochemical factors such as oil properties, turbulence
(e.g., waves for dispersant applied at the surface), temperature, oil weathering, salinity of the
sea water, and the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance of the dispersant (Chandrasekar et al., 2005,
2006; Mukherjee and Wrenn, 2009).
Biodegradation of Chemically Dispersed Oil Dispersants can enhance the initial rate of petro-
leum hydrocarbon degradation by being the first substrate utilized by the hydrocarbon-de-
grading bacteria to grow and colonize dispersed oil droplets (Varadaraj et al., 1995). However,
the observed effects of chemical dispersants on the rate of oil biodegradation have varied
among studies (NRC, 2005a). Chemical dispersion stimulated biodegradation rates in some
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
studies (Swannell and Daniel, 1999; Traxler and Bhattacharya, 1978), but chemical dispersion
had no effect or inhibited biodegradation in others (Foght and Westlake, 1982; Lindstrom and
Braddock, 2002).
Corexit concentrations of 1 to 10 milligrams per milliliter, which were likely encountered
during the actual dispersant application, promoted the biodegradation of DWH oil in labora-
tory tests, but also caused significant reductions in production and viability of the hydrocar-
bon degraders, Acinetobacter and Marinobacter (Hamdan and Fulmer, 2011). Marinobacter was
most sensitive to the dispersant, with nearly 100 percent reduction in viability and production.
Dispersant concentrations within the immediate vicinity of the wellhead may have reduced the
capacity of some microorganisms in those waters to bioremediate the dispersed oil because of
the elevated concentrations of dispersant and oil above toxicity threshold limits, which became
reduced as the plume moved farther away.
Attempts have been made to predict the rate of oil biodegradation in the environment
from the results of kinetic models based on laboratory data (Venosa and Holder, 2007; Zahed
et al., 2011). Lee et al. (2011) highlighted two important challenges to consider when design-
ing experiments. The first challenge is to conduct tests at the low dispersed oil concentrations
representative of field conditions where rapid dilution occurs. Many previous biodegradation
studies were conducted at unrealistically high concentrations of dispersed oil in closed micro-
cosms. Studying dispersed oil biodegradation at concentrations several orders of magnitude
above expected at-sea concentrations in closed systems could limit biodegradation rates and
total degradation by exhausting the available nutrients. Some researchers have attempted to
address this by adding nutrients to the system, but that action can lead to unrepresentative
modification of the microbial community.
The second challenge is to maintain a stable dispersion within the test system. Under
normal sea-state conditions, oil droplets have a strong tendency to become more dispersed
over time, especially for subsurface plumes where droplets can freely move in all three dimen-
sions. Even for surface slicks, Langmuir cells (Langmuir, 1938; Leibovich, 1983) and the action of
waves (Boufadel et al., 2006; Elliot et al., 1986) can temporarily overpower the oil buoyancy and
drive the droplets several meters down into the water column, thus dramatically reducing the
concentration and the chance of coalescence. It is difficult to simulate these kinds of spreading
mechanisms in a laboratory setting. Until these issues are addressed in experimental research,
actual rates for the biodegradation of chemically dispersed oil at sea will remain unknown.
Biodegradation of Dispersants The biodegradation of dispersants and the surfactants used in
them are relatively well studied (Baumann et al., 1999; Garcia et al., 2009; Lindstrom and Brad-
dock, 2002; Liu, 1983; Odokuma and Okpokwasili, 1992; Una and Garcia, 1983). In general, results
indicate that most surfactant formulations are readily biodegraded under aerobic conditions
by marine bacteria (Lee et al., 1985; Liu, 1983; Una and Garcia, 1983), with the rate of biodegra-
dation under anaerobic conditions being much lower (Berna et al., 2007; Ying, 2006).
Different types of surfactants, and even individual surfactants of the same class, can biode-
grade at different rates, depending on environmental conditions and the structural complexity
of a dispersant's chemical branching. For example, Una and Garcia (1983) observed extensive
OCR for page 71
biodegradation of the ethoxylated nonionic surfactants used in Corexit 9527 and 9500 in
pure cultures of bacteria isolated from an estuary. These nonionic surfactants are sorbitan
mono- and tri-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) derivatives, known commercially
as Tween 80 and Tween 85. The authors also noted that poor biodegradation (<20 percent)
of Span 80, the unethoxylated nonionic surfactant constituent in Corexit products, may have
been caused by substrate inhibition due to the extremely high surfactant concentration (5
grams per liter), which likely would have impacted the integrity of bacterial membranes (Garcia
et al., 2009). Campo et al. (2013) analyzed biodegradation of Corexit 9500 and Louisiana sweet
crude (similar to the Macondo oil in properties and hydrocarbon constituents) at both sea
surface and seafloor temperatures, and they observed complete degradation of specific surfac-
tants such as dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (DOSS) within 28 days.
inding 4.2. Existing studies of the biodegradation rate of dispersants alone show that they
do degrade, although at rates that depend strongly on the concentration of dissolved oxygen
and the composition of the surfactant. The biodegradation rate of chemically dispersed oil can
also vary widely, but some, if not all, of this variation reflects the lack of realism in the underly-
ing experiments. Further studies are needed that use realistic initial dispersed oil concentrations
and avoid boundary effects that increase oil-dispersant concentrations.
Toxicity and Bioaccumulation of Dispersed Oil, Dispersants, and Surfactants
Although a great deal of work has been done under controlled laboratory conditions to
evaluate the toxicity of chemical oil dispersants and dispersed oil in the marine environment,
differences in results have been observed because of factors such as species-specific sensitiv-
ity, the particular dispersant formulation used, and experimental conditions (George-Ares and
Clark, 2000). For example, with exposure of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) to dispersed oil,
toxicity has been found to be related to concentration, duration of exposure, and life stage ex-
posed (McIntosh et al., 2010). Some controversy remains over the use of dispersants (Chapman
et al., 2007) because they may elicit toxic responses. Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 result in low
to moderate toxicity to most aquatic species in laboratory tests (George-Ares and Clark, 2000).
However, there is evidence that oil dispersed as small droplets in the water column might be
more bioavailable, and therefore more toxic, than the oil alone. For example, fish studies with
newly hatched mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) in 96-hour static renewal tests have shown
that dispersant additions induced changes in aqueous concentrations of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) that affect larval survival, body length, or ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase
activity, an indicator of contaminant uptake (Couillard et al., 2005). At 0.2 gram per liter, the ad-
dition of dispersant caused twofold and fivefold increases in the concentrations of total PAHs
and high-molecular-weight PAHs (three or more benzene rings), respectively. Recent studies
have focused on the evaluation of chronic effects from short-term exposures to dispersants
and dispersed oil (Hannam et al., 2009; McFarlin et al., 2011b). Much consideration has also
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
been given to the environmental persistence of dispersants, dispersed oil, or dispersant by-
products at low concentrations (Lee et al., 2011).
Fuller et al. (2004) conducted a study using two fish species, Cyprinodon variegatus and
Menidia beryllina, and one shrimp species, Americamysis bahia (formerly Mysidopsis bahia),
and the luminescent bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, to evaluate the relative toxicity of test media
prepared with dispersant, weathered crude oil, and weathered crude oil plus dispersant. The
study results indicated that the toxicity of chemically dispersed oil preparations was equal to or
less than that of the oil alone. However, the real source of toxicity was a function of the soluble
crude oil components, which would likely not persist over time. An EPA study by Hemmer et al.
(2010) of the toxicity of Louisiana sweet crude (LSC), chemical oil dispersants, and chemically
dispersed LSC on Menidia beryllina and Americamysis bahia (two species used by Fuller et al.,
2004) revealed that the toxicity of the dispersant alone was lower than that of LSC or dispersed
LSC, which both showed moderate to high toxicity. Similarly, Milinkovitch et al. (2011) found no
significant difference between the toxicity of naturally and chemically dispersed oil when look-
ing at a series of biomarker responses in the gills of golden grey mullet (Liza aurata).
Judson et al. (2010) used in vitro (cell-based) assays and concluded that, although some
dispersants showed low potential for endocrine disruption, most (including Corexit) did not
show any significant effect. Research into the toxicity of a series of chemical oil dispersants
(the Corexit series of dispersants were not tested) on two Indo-Pacific branching coral species
found that the two corals were sensitive to chemical oil dispersants and chemically dispersed
oil, but that toxicity decreased sharply with dilution (Shafir et al., 2007). During this study, the
water-soluble oil fraction was also tested and showed relatively low toxicity, but naturally
dispersed crude oil was not evaluated. Using the frog (Xenopus) embryo teratogenesis assay,
Smith et al. (2012) reported a range of abnormalities due to Corexit 9500A (concentration
range: 1 to 1,000 microliters [μL] per liter) that included edemas of the pharynx, thorax, and eye,
and incomplete and reversed gut coiling.
Fish are highly mobile and will encounter dispersed oil. Greer et al. (2012) showed that
brief exposures of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) embryos to low concentrations of chemi-
cally dispersed Alaskan North Slope and Arabian light crude oils for 2.4 hours could induce
blue-sac disease and reduce the percentage of normal embryos at hatching. Furthermore,
toxicity increased with exposure time. However, fish are not expected to be exposed for long
time periods to dispersed oil, because of natural dilution processes under dynamic open ocean
conditions (Lee et al., 2011).
The media have raised concerns about the potential effects of the crude oil and dis-
persants on the food web dynamics in the GoM (Mascarelli, 2010). Microcosm experiments
performed in situ in North Inlet Estuary near Georgetown, South Carolina, using DWH oil and
a Texas crude oil noted a decrease in chlorophyll a in phytoplankton as crude oil concentra-
tion increased from 10 to 100 microliters per liter (Gilde and Pinckney, 2012). Researchers
interpreted this change as a decrease in biomass rather than in the pigment itself, because of
the short duration of the experiments. Diatom, cyanobacteria, euglenophyte, and chlorophyte
abundances were unaffected or increased with increased oiling, whereas cryptophyte abun-
dance decreased. The authors suggested that oiling could result in changes in phytoplankton
OCR for page 71
community composition within salt marsh estuaries impacted by the DWH oil, thereby af-
fecting higher trophic levels such as zooplankton, which selectively feed on phytoplankton
that might be killed by the oil (Gilde and Pinckney, 2012). Graham et al. (2010) found that δ13C
depletion, used as a tracer of oil-derived carbon in mesozooplankton and suspended particu-
late samples in near-surface and bottom waters from four stations in 8- to 33-m water depth
in the northern GoM, corresponded with the arrival of surface slicks from the DWH oil spill
and demonstrated that carbon from the spill was incorporated into both trophic levels of the
planktonic food web.
Ortmann et al. (2012) conducted mesocosm experiments to determine the response of
the surface microbial community off Alabama to Macondo well oil and Corexit 9500A. The
results suggest that the oil alone increased the abundance of ciliates (predators of the carbon-
digesting bacteria), and therefore the likelihood of carbon being transferred up the food web.
However, when dispersant or dispersed oil was used, an increase in heterotrophic prokaryotes
with a significant inhibition of ciliates ensued, which suggests that the prokaryotes were able
to use the dispersant and dispersed oil as a carbon source and that a decrease in the number
of grazing microbes was occurring, with a corresponding decrease in carbon transfer to higher
trophic levels (although the carbon transfer was not measured). The researchers hypothesized
that the addition of dispersant and dispersed oil to the northern GoM from the DWH incident
may have reduced the carbon transfer to higher organisms and potentially decreased zoo-
plankton and fish production on the shelf. However, in a previous mesocosm study conducted
on the Pacific coast off Canada, Lee et al. (1985) noted that the presence of crude oil dispersed
with Corexit 9527 may have reduced the grazing pressure by bacterivores such as ciliates on
potential oil-degrading bacteria.
Satellite measurements of algal blooms in the GoM suggest that the spill may have trig-
gered an increase in these blooms. Initial results of changes in the Moderate Resolution Imag-
ing Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fluorescence line height as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass
and a source of carbon for trophic transfer1 showed a statistically significant chlorophyll a
anomaly in an area exceeding 11,000 km2 in August 2010, about 3 weeks after the Macondo
well was capped (Hu et al., 2011). The values of fluorescence line height were higher than in any
similar August imagery from 2002 to 2009 (Hu et al., 2011). A second bloom from December
2010 to January 2011 seemed to have been from strong upwelling and mixing events during
late fall, but data were insufficient to support or reject the hypothesis that subsurface oil from
the DWH oil spill may have contributed to its occurrence (Hu et al., 2011). These studies high-
light the need to fully understand the long-term effects of residual oil and dispersed oil in the
marine environment.
Dispersant application during the DWH oil spill occurred at a time when birds in the Gulf
region were nesting. Some birds and their eggs may have been exposed to oil, Corexit, or
dispersed oil. To test the embryotoxicity of Macondo well oil dispersed with Corexit 9500 to
a model bird species, 50:1 and 10:1 mixtures of weathered Macondo well crude oil (collected
from the GoM) and Corexit were applied to the shells of mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/.
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
eggs in ranges of 0.1 to 59.9 mg for the 50:1 mixture, and 0.1 to 44.9 mg for the 10:1 mixture
(Finch et al., 2012). No deformities were observed, which is consistent with a previous study
using weathered MC252 oil (Finch et al., 2011). It appears that the weathering of the oil reduces
the potential toxic effects on bird eggs; in previous studies, fresh crude oils have been shown
to be embryotoxic and teratogenic (Hoffman and Albers, 1984), because they contain lighter-
molecular-weight components, including PAHs (Barron et al., 1999), that can penetrate the
eggshell and membrane.
After the DWH oil spill, the EPA issued a number of directives (EPA, 2010) regarding the
monitoring of the efficacy of subsurface oil dispersant injection and the fate and transport of
dispersed oil and operational shutdown criteria. Based on the results of daily field data reports,
the EPA had the authority to suspend the application of dispersants because of a significant
reduction in dissolved oxygen (National Incident Command Joint Analysis Group, 2010), high
mortality in rotifer toxicity tests, and other indicators related to human health. In support of
these mandates, the EPA conducted a series of toxicity experiments to determine the potential
threat posed to marine organisms by the large volumes of dispersant being applied during
the spill response (Hemmer et al., 2010). The acute toxicity and capacity for endocrine disrup-
tion and other biological activity of eight chemical oil dispersant formulations in the pres-
ence of Louisiana Sweet Crude oil, at recommended application rates, were evaluated with
GoM mysid shrimp, Americamysis bahia, and the inland silverside fish, Menidia beryllina. Acute
toxicity testing was conducted using the LC50 metric, which identifies the lethal concentration
(LC) at which 50 percent of the test species die over a given period of time. The capacity of the
dispersants to act as endocrine disruptors, or engage in other biological activity, was deter-
mined using a series of standardized in vitro (cell-based) assays. Overall, the dispersant-LSC oil
mixtures were considered to be highly to moderately toxic, depending on the test species and
dispersant. Corexit 9500A, which was used for both surface and subsurface application during
the DWH oil spill response, was considered moderately toxic for both species. The toxicity of the
dispersant alone was lower than that of LSC or dispersed LSC.
In light of the varied and somewhat circumstantial results being obtained for toxicity
studies of chemical oil dispersants, George-Ares and Clark (2000) suggested that factors such
as toxicity of dispersed oil, dilution and degradation in the environment, presence of species
or resources requiring priority protection, potential adverse effects of all response options, and
the potential for recovery of sensitive habitats and populations should weigh more heavily in
the decision-making process than dispersant toxicity alone.
Some consideration has also been given to the bioaccumulation of surfactants. There is
evidence that surfactants of all classes are readily taken up across the gills of some marine
animals (EOSCA, 2000) and that nonionic and ionic surfactants (such as those found in most
oil dispersants) may be effectively biotransformed and eliminated via the gall bladder (Tolls et
al., 1994). A review of the bioaccumulation potential of surfactants conducted by the European
Oilfield Speciality Chemicals Association (EOSCA) concluded that although surfactants and
their metabolites can be found in aquatic organisms following exposure, there was no evi-
dence to support biomagnification of surfactants through the food web (EOSCA, 2000).
Numerous studies of the toxicity of dispersants and dispersed oil, some with conflicting
OCR for page 71
was deposited and whether or not it will be naturally available to the islands for post-storm
An evaluation of the efficacy of the Louisiana berms project (and the other oil spill re-
sponse strategies used during the DWH oil spill) by the staff of the Oil Commission found that
the berms were not an effective response technology based on a cost-benefit analysis. They
concluded that the scope and scale of the berms proposed were far too extensive and could
not be designed, approved, and built in the time needed to be effective. The value of the berms
as a spill response technology depends on how much oil they trapped. Estimates vary, but
none of the estimates is much greater than 1,000 total barrels (Graham et al., 2011b).
Onshore booms create barriers that keep oil from affecting sensitive areas and from
intruding further inland. There are three main types. A shore-sea deflection boom for high-
current areas has an air tube that rides on one or two water-filled tubes. Once deployed and
anchored at the selected location, water is pumped into the lower tubes to form a skirt. This
water acts as ballast when the boom is floating. When the boom is grounded, these flexible
tubes follow the sediment surface to form a seal. Oil is deflected toward pooling areas where
it can be recovered from land (USCG, 2011). The second type is a containment boom that is
used to surround pooled oil so it can be removed by skimmers. This type of boom can also be
used as a barrier (protection) when laid parallel to the shore to prevent oiling of sensitive areas
(USCG, 2011). The third type is a snare (sorbent) boom, which is constructed of a long fabric
sock filled with oleophilic material, or a series of oleophilic polypropylene "pompoms" tied to a
line. Unlike hard booms, sorbent booms do not have an attached skirt. A sorbent boom is typi-
cally anchored parallel to the shoreline to absorb oil slicks as they wash toward the shore.
Use of Booms During the DWH Oil Spill
During the DWH oil spill, booms were extensively used to protect sensitive coastal marshes
and were later removed. About 1.16 million m of hard (containment) boom and 2.95 million m
of sorbent boom were deployed6 at critical points to protect wildlife refuges, bird nesting areas,
estuaries, beaches, marshes, and other environmentally sensitive and economically significant
lands throughout the Gulf Coast. All of the hard booms on shorelines in Mississippi, Alabama,
and the Florida Panhandle were removed by September 7, 2010, and they were inspected,
cleaned, repaired if possible, and stored at sites along the Gulf Coast for further redeployment
should the need arise.7
Response crews deployed more than 2 million feet of containment boom in Louisiana, se-
cured by Danforth-style anchors, which were designed to embed in the sediment and collapse
6 http://www.restorethegulf.gov/release/2011/08/19/operations-and-ongoing-response-august-17-2011.
7 http://www.restorethegulf.gov/release/2010/09/07/all-operational-hard-boom-removed-mississippi-alabama-
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
flat when not in use. Upon boom retrieval, it was discovered that some of the anchors remained
embedded in the sediment. The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned a net environmental benefit
analysis (NEBA) to determine the tradeoffs, including the potential loss of ecosystem services,
associated with the recovery of the anchors. The June 2011 Orphan Anchor report (Gulf Coast
Incident Management Team, 2011) noted that 46 anchors were buried at an average depth of
1.9–2.1 m, where the risk of damage to personal and commercial vessels was extremely low.
There had been no reports of accidents involving these anchors, and decomposition of the
steel and galvanized steel components was not considered to be a risk to humans, aquatic life,
or the environment. The NEBA team recommended that leaving the remaining buried anchors
in place to naturally degrade was the best option (Gulf Coast Incident Management Team.
2011). Apart from the buried anchor information, no additional data on the impact of booms
on local habitat or ecosystem services exist.
Hydrology Modification via Mississippi River Diversions
The Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion was built in 2004 to reduce salinity throughout the
length of Barataria Bay, enhance fisheries, and add additional nutrients and sediment to the
area wetlands.8 The diversion was opened by the state of Louisiana on April 30, 2010, during
the DWH oil spill to prevent oil from contaminating the marshes of Barataria Bay (Bianchi et
al., 2011). The initial flow of 113 m3/s was increased to 212 m3/s on May 7 and reached its full
capacity of about 300 m3/s on May 10—21 days after the DWH explosion.9 In July, the dis-
charge rate was generally maintained above 200 m3/s. By September, discharge was reduced
to <25 m3/s. The rapid and extreme changes in salinity caused 50 percent mortality in oyster
beds in Louisiana (Food Channel Editor, 2011). Reductions of oyster recruitment and harvest
were projected to continue over the next 3 years (Martínez et al., 2012). Mortality of the oyster
beds and a decline in the oyster catch for 2012 through 2013 resulted in decreased income for
oyster fisherman.
By mid May 2010, in an effort to prevent the intrusion of oil from the DWH spill into fragile
coastal ecosystems, a number of freshwater diversions were in effect, many of them to the east
of the Mississippi River. The total measurable flow from these diversions was 29,550 cubic feet
per second (cfs) (Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration, 2010).
• Bayou Lamoque Diversion: Plaquemines Parish, 7,500 cfs (capacity 12,000)
• Davis Pond Diversion: St. Charles Parish, 10,650 cfs (capacity 10,650)
• Violet Siphon: St. Bernard Parish, 200 cfs (capacity 200)
• Caernarvon Diversion: St. Bernard Parish, 8,000 cfs (capacity 8,800)
• Whites Ditch Siphon: Plaquemines Parish, 200 cfs (capacity 200)
• Naomi Siphon: Plaquemines Parish, 1,500 cfs (capacity 1,500)
• West Pointe a la Hache Siphon: Plaquemines Parish, 1,500 cfs (capacity 1,500)
8 http://www.lca.gov/Projects/14/Default.aspx.
9 USGS Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?295501090190400.
OCR for page 71
The total water diverted to east of the river was 17,400 cfs, which amounts to less than 1
percent of the water flow down the lower river during flood years 2008–2010 (Allison et al.,
2012). Dubravko Justić's FVCOM model grid (personal communication) was applied to Breton
Sound, with incorporation of state-designed freshwater diversions to keep oil from entering
Louisiana estuaries.
Finding 4.7. The effectiveness of mechanisms for near-shore and onshore protection of
shorelines was negligible in terms of berms and freshwater diversions, but somewhat effective
in terms of booms. Well-formed scientific advice was provided in advance that sand berms and
diversions would be ineffective in keeping the oil from reaching the wetlands. Moving forward,
decision analyses may be needed to refine guidelines and to optimize the effectiveness of vari-
ous technologies and protocols. Additional research is needed to monitor the overall impacts of
these response technologies on ecosystems and the services they provide.
Technological efforts offshore do not entirely contain the oil. Oil at sea very often will
impact coastal shores if sensitive shorelines are not far away, and if ocean currents are likely to
move oil slicks or dispersed oil to those areas. When shorelines and costal habitats are oiled, as
they were in the DWH oil spill, shoreline cleanup processes are invoked.
DWH Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT)
In response to the DWH oil spill, NOAA formed a shoreline response team, Shoreline
Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT), which relied upon the creation of a consistent data and
knowledge base of the extent of oiling along types of shoreline habitat (Santner et al., 2011).
Between 15 and 20 SCAT teams were deployed each day after May 4, 2010, and eventually
determined the total length of oiled shoreline to be 1,053 miles. Teams of archaeologists (often
as a part of the SCAT teams) also conducted field surveys of the entire impacted shoreline to
locate known cultural resources, identify sites of potential cultural concern, and monitor opera-
tions to provide direction on minimizing impacts to important ecosystem services related to
cultural resources.
The shoreline response team also created multiagency Core Groups, one for Louisiana and
one for Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida to (a) set treatment priorities, (b) develop treatment
recommendations for the various habitat types, (c) monitor the cleanup process, and (d) deter-
mine the effectiveness and impacts of treatment. Technical Working Groups were established
within the Core Groups to deal with particular habitat issues and treatment recommendations
and to establish "no further treatment" (NFT) criteria for sandy shorelines, coastal marshes and
mangroves, and human-constructed shorelines. Their reports serve as appendixes to the Core
Groups' final reports, "The Stage III SCAT-Shoreline Treatment Implementation Framework"
(Santner et al., 2011). Their findings are described below.
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
Shoreline Cleanup Strategies After the DWH Oil Spill
Barrier island shoreline treatment following the DWH oil spill typically involved manual
or mechanical removal, because mixing, sediment relocation, washing, or chemical treatment
each requires some form of regulatory approval or permitting (Owens et al., 2011). The differ-
ences in oiling conditions (surface and buried oil or oil layers, stained sand, and sunken oil in
the adjacent subtidal waters) and sediment characteristics of the central Louisiana coast and
the Gulf beaches of Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi precluded the use of a single technique
as a panacea (Owens et al., 2011; Santner et al., 2011). Key considerations in choosing the
cleanup methods for beaches were minimization of sand removal and therefore waste genera-
tion, minimization of restoration time for amenity beaches used for recreation, and mainte-
nance of beach stability against storms.
The removal of bulk oil, mobile oil in intertidal areas that posed a threat to adjacent habi-
tats or resources, from the intertidal areas along the northern GoM was repeated as neces-
sary in areas of high environmental significance such as turtle-nesting areas, high-use tourist
beaches, waterfront parks, and local residential areas (Santner et al., 2011). Amenity beaches
that suffered recurring oiling from remobilized oil, or reworking of the shoreline by wind and
wave action, were also subject to continued oil removal operations through the 2010–2011
winter (Santner et al., 2011).
Cleanup techniques for salt marshes and mangroves were natural attenuation (discussed
below), low-pressure ambient-temperature flushing (to float the oil), mobile vacuum systems,
securely deployed containment sorbents or snares, manual removal (on sand or shell sub-
strates only), and vegetation cutting from boats for limited access to Roseau cane marshes only
(see Appendix D in SCAT, 2010). In salt marsh habitats where there was little or no risk of re-
peated oiling, bulk oil removal was only done once on a limited scale, conducted from floating
platforms, skiffs, or shallow-draft barges fitted with flushing and vacuum systems, adapted from
concrete pump arms (Santner et al., 2011). These floating crafts were able to reach into oiled
fringe wetlands to wash and recover mobile oil. When stranded oil was removed, it was primar-
ily carried out by hand with sorbent material and by cutting oiled vegetation. The preferred oil
spill response in salt marshes was natural attenuation (Santner et al., 2011).
Manual Removal of DWH Oil
Human-constructed shorelines of riprap, breakwaters, groins (low walls or timber barriers
extending into the sea from a beach to check erosion), and jetties were treated after the DWH
oil spill through manual removal of bulk oil, followed by washing using a range of tempera-
tures and pressures (Santner et al., 2011). Manual equipment included long-handle hand-mesh
and screens, pitchforks with screens, pool nets for surface residue balls along the water line,
and mechanical adaptations such as rotary screens and welded mesh screens for extended-
reach backhoes working with surface residue balls and patties in water-saturated sand (Owens
et al., 2011).
OCR for page 71
Challenges to Cleaning Sandy Beaches
Re-oiling during storm events (as observed after Hurricane Isaac in August, 2012; Clement
et al., 2012) exposed buried oil, and chronic deposition of new oil occurred from oily sedi-
ment mats in the lower intertidal and near-shore subtidal zones, which created challenging
issues for cleanup operations (Santner et al., 2011). Oil became stranded in the supratidal zone
during storms and buried up to 1.5 m deep in beaches, thus requiring extensive excavation,
especially on amenity beaches. Further challenges included delineation of buried oil over large
areas, both along-shore and cross-shore. Submerged oil mats were widespread in the lower
intertidal zone, but they were difficult to clean because they became covered by high water
and clean sand over time (OSAT, 2011b; Santner et al., 2011). The use of heavy equipment was
limited because of concerns that mechanical methods would result in increased beach erosion
or because of restrictions and prohibitions on the use of mechanical equipment on remote
barrier islands. An NFT guideline of no visible oil above background on amenity beaches was a
difficult, but required, endpoint.
Sand Washing
A fixed sand-washing system, constructed with a shaker sieve to remove large surface resi-
due balls and patties along with debris, as well as two heated wash units, was used on Grand
Isle, Louisiana, and proved to be successful (Owens et al., 2011). The small amount of residual
oil remaining in the treated sediments from this procedure was removed by surf-washing
Surf Washing
Three field (and several small-scale) demonstrations of surf washing (i.e., enhanced disper-
sion of oil by the formation of oil-mineral aggregates [OMAs]) were conducted on Grand Isle,
Louisiana (Owens et al., 2011). The demonstrations included sediment and water chemistry
analysis before and after the event, and sometimes beach profiling, to determine the efficacy of
the technique as a sand-polishing step after the removal of bulk oil by sieving or sand wash-
ing. Surf washing by relocation of sediment to the lower intertidal zone did not cause signifi-
cant sediment loss, nor did the technology increase hydrocarbon concentrations in intertidal
or subtidal sediments or water. The decision was made to use this technique, and more than
30,000 cubic yards were surf washed within a week. Although one small-scale demonstration
in Escambia, Florida, led to an initial decision against surf washing because of strong longshore
currents, sediment drift, and little residual oil (Owens et al., 2011), operations were resumed at a
later date to treat residual oil in the beach sediments.
Finding 4.8. The impacts of shoreline cleanup operations have not yet been determined.
Cleanup efforts were inconsistently successful because of storms, shifting sediments, vari-
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
able beach habitats, and variable oiling profiles along the northern GoM coasts. Lightly oiled
beaches on barrier islands were the easiest to clean and restore.
Salt Marsh Impacts from Cleanup Operations
Physical destruction of marsh habitat during cleanup operations is the most common
concern, but virtually all options will cause some damage to marshes during cleanup (Aldhous
and Hecht, 2010). Fertilizer, such as phosphorus to encourage regrowth of oiled Spartina alter-
niflora, was not applied to encourage marsh recovery, probably because of concerns about root
damage as described in studies of nutrient overenrichment of marsh habitats (e.g., Darby and
Turner, 2008; Deegan et al., 2012; Turner et al., 2009). Root damage would reduce the power of
the marsh sod to hold together, resulting in greater erosion (Aldhous and Hecht, 2010).
However, there is evidence to support the application of nutrients to enhance the re-
mediation of oiled wetlands dominated by Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens (Lin and
Mendelssohn, 1998). In the case of the DWH oil spill, it has been suggested that oiled Gulf Coast
marshes will recover by natural attenuation because prior research has demonstrated their
intrinsic resilience (DeLaune and Wright, 2011). Natural attenuation was the preferred option in
the case of the DWH oil spill (Santner et al., 2011).
Aeration from tidal action, along with the addition of nitrogen in the form of ammonia,
has been shown to significantly increase oil biodegradation in Louisiana salt marsh sediments
(Jackson and Pardue, 1997; Shin and Pardue, 2001a,b; Shin et al., 2000, 2001). Anaerobic biodeg-
radation of oil in marsh sediments can be enhanced in the presence of mixed electron accep-
tors (sulfate, nitrate). This enhancement occurs in Louisiana marsh sediments where various
electron-accepting anaerobes that degrade petroleum hydrocarbons coexist (Boopathy et al.,
2012). The recovery rate will depend on the extent of oiling, depth of oil penetration into the
sediments, and types of plant species affected. There is already evidence that new shoots are
appearing in heavily oiled areas, so the long-term effects may be limited (DeLaune and Wright,
2011). Research is under way evaluating the long-term impacts of the Macondo well oil on
coastal ecosystem health and function in the GoM.10
Risk Analysis for Shoreline Cleanup Operations
The current understanding of impacts of residual near-shore oil from the spill on organ-
isms including plants, invertebrates, fish, birds, mammals, and sea turtles has been addressed
in the Operational Science Advisory Team report (OSAT, 2011a) and is summarized below.
Direct exposure may occur through incidental ingestion when feeding on sand beaches, or
through physical contact. Aquatic organisms can be indirectly exposed to toxins by diffusion
of dissolved oil fractions across gills and cell membranes, or directly exposed by feeding on
suspended oil residues.
10 http://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.
OCR for page 71
OSAT considered the risk of acute toxicity to fish and invertebrates to be unlikely, but there
is potential for chronic exposure to dibenzothiophenes and dibenzofuran from the water-
accommodated fraction. The dynamic nature of the surf zone and subtidal areas is expected to
rapidly dilute petroleum concentrations to insignificant levels, and toxicologically significant
petroleum concentrations would be expected to be localized in the surface microlayer adja-
cent to submerged oil mats or surface residue balls.
OSAT considered the risk to sea turtles from oil residues on top of the beach to be low, but
it identified a potential difficulty for turtles attempting to nest by digging through subsurface
tar mats (OSAT, 2011a). Beach cleanup and spill monitoring activities also impacted sea turtle
nesting activities, but to what degree remains unknown. The toxicity of weathered oil to turtle
eggs was assumed to be low (OSAT, 2011a). The oil is degrading and becoming less toxic, but
media reports have claimed that more than 1,000 turtles, 70 marine mammals, and possibly
hundreds more marine mammals (see Chapter 5), and 4,000 birds are thought to have died as a
consequence of the DWH oil spill (Service, 2010). These numbers may be significantly underes-
timated. Neither short-term nor long-term risks nor damage to juvenile forms of these animals
is known at this time. The release of the damage assessment data is expected to support more
accurate quantification of these impacts.
OSAT (2011a) determined that the risks to birds are mostly applicable to their foraging
along the beach and inadvertently ingesting oil. Risk appears low for the piping plover, but low
to medium for the western sandpiper based on its foraging behavior. Risks to eggs of beach-
nesting birds are possible but unknown. Risks from cleanup activities are medium to high.
Beach-dwelling mammals may be exposed to surface residue balls by incidental ingestion, or
if they build burrows in the vicinity of supratidal buried oil (OSAT, 2011a). OSAT determined the
risk of oil exposure for the federally endangered Alabama beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus
ammobates) to be low. That said, spill response actions, such as cleanup activities and increased
human traffic on the beach, may have altered, reduced, or damaged the mouse's habitat and
therefore increased the threat to this species.
Results from the OSAT 2 NEBA analysis indicated that the environmental effects of the
residual oil following cleanup are relatively minor, especially considering the pre-spill baseline
level of oiling (OSAT, 2011b). Analyses of water and sediment samples along the northwestern
Florida coastline have shown that swimming at or visiting the beaches poses no risk to human
health from oil spill hydrocarbons (Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 2011). If
cleanup were continued, then it would be expected to result in an increasingly greater extent
of damage to habitats and associated resources. Consideration must also be given to the use of
beaches for recreation in the spring and summer, which would conflict with cleanup opera-
tions (Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 2011).
Natural attenuation is the "reduction in mass or concentration of a contaminant in the
environment over time or distance from its source of release due to naturally occurring physi-
cal, chemical and biological processes, such as biodegradation, dispersion, dilution, adsorption,
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
and volatilization" (American Society for Testing and Materials, 2010). The natural attenuation
of oil can be defined as the biotic and abiotic degradation and dispersion of oil that results in
natural recovery of an oil-impacted environment. When oil enters the marine environment,
abiotic weathering processes (evaporation to the air, dissolution in water, emulsification with
water, dispersion, and photodegradation) (see Appendix G in SCAT, 2010) alter properties of the
oil (density, viscosity, water content, surface and interfacial tensions), which ultimately define its
In the natural environment, oil droplets do not persist intact. Some of the lighter com-
pounds in the oil dissolve to become the water-accommodated fraction. A number of droplets
will recombine or coalesce, rising back to the surface. Others undergo colonization by microbes
and are biodegraded.
Oil droplets can attract and incorporate suspended particulate matter from the water
column (Owens and Lee, 2003), surface water outflows, or stirred up sediment. These OMAs
are an important factor controlling the fate and transport of oil spilled in the marine environ-
ment (Bassin and Ichiye, 1977; Boehm, 1987; Karickhoff, 1981; Payne et al., 1989). The parameters
controlling the quantity, type, and size of OMA include mineral type and surface properties,
quantity of mineral fines, oil viscosity and composition, and oil/mineral ratio (Stoffyn-Egli and
Lee, 2002). Water turbulence (breaking waves, strong flood currents) greatly enhances OMA
The concept of using enhanced OMA formation as an operational strategy for the cleanup
of oil stranded on coastal beaches came about from laboratory studies of oiled sediments from
the Exxon Valdez oil spill (Bragg and Yang, 1995; Bragg et al., 1994). These studies revealed that
micron-sized mineral fines, seawater, and weathered oil interacted to form clay-oil flocculations
(a type of OMA) that promoted the release of oil into the water column. This process was hy-
pothesized to be responsible for the natural cleaning in sheltered shorelines of Prince William
Sound after the oil spill. Enhanced OMA production by surf-washing operations has now been
recognized as a strategy to remove oil stranded within beach sediments (Lee et al., 1997, 1999;
Lunel et al., 1996, 1997; Owens, 1999; Owens and Lee, 2003; Swannell et al., 1999; see section,
"Treatment of Shoreline Oiled by the DWH Oil Spill," subsection "Surf Washing").
A large number of microorganisms are capable of biodegrading hydrocarbons (Atlas,
1984; NRC, 2003: ZoBell, 1973), and bacteria are the predominant hydrocarbon degraders in
the marine environment (Atlas and Hazen, 2011). Biodegradation by microbial communities is
the major process controlling the eventual removal of oil that enters the marine environment
from natural seeps (Atlas, 1995; Atlas and Bartha, 1992; Leahy and Colwell, 1990). Although
much slower, anaerobic (oxygen absent) biodegradation of oil should not be underestimated
as a strategy, because it has been shown to be a major process in anoxic marine sediments,
where sulfate, nitrate, manganese (IV), and iron (III) are the primary terminal electron-acceptors
(Canfield et al., 2005; Finke et al., 2007; Lovley et al., 1997). Although normally present in small
numbers in pristine environments, oil-degrading microbes can multiply rapidly upon the intro-
OCR for page 71
duction of oil (Atlas, 1995; Horel et al., 2012), as was the situation in the GoM after the DWH oil
spill (Hazen et al., 2010).
The individual components in crude oil do not biodegrade at the same rate. Biodegrada-
tion rates are highest for the lightest components such as alkanes, followed by light aromatics
(up to three rings), with high-molecular-weight aromatics (four rings and higher) and polar
compounds exhibiting extremely low rates (Prince, 2010). Because of the chemical complexity
of crude oil, its biodegradation may require the cooperation of a consortium of microbes or
syntrophic interspecies (McInerney et al., 2008). Some microorganisms may also naturally pro-
duce extracellular biosurfactants that promote emulsification of hydrophobic hydrocarbons
for subsequent transport into the hydrophilic intracellular space for biodegradation (Desai and
Banat, 1997; Southam et al., 2001). Microbes are well adapted to their surroundings, including
extremely low temperatures (Delille et al., 2009; McFarlin et al., 2011a), and Hazen et al. (2010)
confirmed that oil in the low-temperature, deep-water environments of the GoM may be de-
graded by indigenous microorganisms at higher rates than previously thought.
Finding 4.9. Abiotic weathering processes and microbial degradation are major processes con-
trolling the eventual removal of oil that enters marine and coastal environments. Thus, natural
attenuation of some oil will occur without technological interventions.
Natural Attenuation Following the DWH Oil Spill
Regardless of the response technique employed, some oil will remain in the environment.
For the DWH event, because of the volume of oil spilled and the natural rates of oil weathering,
oil reached near-shore waters and coastal habitats, to which a range of removal technologies
were applied. With the exception of buried oil that was reexposed after storms (e.g., Hurricane
Isaac in 2012) and the associated wave surge, to which additional cleanup activities were ap-
plied, the fate of this residual oil was left to natural attenuation. The DWH oil spill highlighted
the significance of natural oil degradation. Marine bacteria may have been primarily respon-
sible for the observed loss of residual oil evident in the GoM (American Society of Microbiology,
2011; Walsh, 2010).
Unlike oil spills occurring at the sea surface, much of the petroleum hydrocarbons erupting
from the Macondo wellhead experienced a prolonged, buoyancy-driven ascent through the
1,500-m water column (Hazen et al., 2010). Hazen et al. (2010) reported that the disappearance
of residual oil in the GoM water column from the DWH oil spill was associated with microbial
degradation processes. Genes for chemotaxis, motility, and aliphatic hydrocarbon degrada-
tion were found to be elevated in samples taken from inside the DWH oil plume compared to
samples taken from outside of the plume, and cells of Oceanospirillales bacteria isolated from
plume samples were found to possess gene sequences for the degradation of n-alkane and
near-complete oxidation of cyclohexane (Mason et al., 2012). Temperature did not appear to
be a major limiting factor because significant rates of oil degradation were observed within
the subsurface plume of dispersed oil at a depth of 1,100- to 1,200-m and temperatures below
4°C (Hazen et al., 2010). Some estimates indicate that as much as 30 percent of the oil and gas
OCR for page 71
Oil Spill Response Technologies
never reached the sea surface, but instead formed hydrocarbon-rich plumes within the cold
waters present at 1,100–1,200 m depth (Hazen et al., 2010; Valentine et al., 2010).
An examination of petroleum hydrocarbons in oil mousse (emulsion of water and oil) col-
lected between May and July 2010 from the seafloor and the sea surface, and as close as 6 km
and as distant as 185 km from the wellhead (Liu et al., 2012), showed only light to moderate
degradation of oil deposited in sediments near the wellhead (Liu et al., 2012). This contrasted
considerably with the extensive weathering of oil observed in mousse samples in the marshes.
Trace metal concentrations, particularly of aluminum, iron, and manganese, increased signifi-
cantly from DWH crude oil, to surface mousse, and then to the marsh sediment, suggesting
that clay minerals and dissolved metals were aggregated during oil weathering and mousse
transportation. The fate of the oil in the subsurface plume remains an active field of research.
Finding 4.10. The fate and transformations of oil from the DWH oil spill were and will continue
to be influenced by natural attenuation processes. These processes may be considered the best
practical methods for oil removal in sensitive habitats, where the application of technology
may cause more harm, or in logistically inaccessible habitats. Continued observations, monitor-
ing, and research of these processes, especially in relation to technological countermeasures,
are warranted.
Because biodegradation of all components within crude oil is not a rapid process, reliance
on natural attenuation as the sole strategy might result in reduced provisioning of finfish and
shellfish because of impacts to juveniles in spawning and nursery grounds, and a correspond-
ing loss of commercial fishery, recreational fishing, and tourism income (discussed further in
Chapter 5, "Fisheries" subsection). Thus far, however, the documented losses of ecosystem ser-
vices after the DWH oil spill have been due to fisheries closures and public fears of consuming
contaminated seafood, rather than reduced juvenile recruitment (McGill, 2011; Upton, 2011).
The longer-term impacts of selecting natural attenuation over more proactive spill
responses to the ecosystem services provided by the deep-sea GoM, such as provisioning of
bluefin tuna and royal red shrimp, recreational whale watching, and the provisioning of oil and
gas, are uncertain (see Chapter 5). Regulating and cultural services provided by larger animals
such as turtles and bottlenose dolphins (see Chapter 5) may also be adversely impacted. In ad-
dition, wetland losses due to the inundation and smothering of marsh plants have affected the
ecosystem services provided by these habitats (additional discussion found in Chapter 5).
A number of spill response technologies and techniques were applied during the DWH oil
spill, including direct recovery from the wellhead, skimming, in situ burning, chemical disper-
sion, flushing (river diversion), and erection of physical barriers. In deeper water, enhanced
dispersion via the use of chemical dispersants was one of the most effective response methods
in terms of impacts on total oil volume. Skimming and burning removed about 7–10 percent
of total oil. Once the oil made it to shore, cleanup efforts depended upon the type of shoreline.
OCR for page 71
To clean oil from beaches, sand washing and surf washing were performed. To clean oil from
marshes, physical removal of the oil by manual labor, floating machinery, and manual cropping
of oiled vegetation were employed.
Almost all countermeasures and response options have limitations and environmental ef-
fects that ultimately will impact ecosystem services. If the goal of response efforts is to protect
the environment that sustains the ecosystem services, then we must realize that prioritization
among the services involves complex decisions and the selection and application of response
technologies involves tradeoffs. Most decisions regarding the application of spill response
technologies after the DWH oil spill were based on NEBA,11 and they were made in consider-
ation of the best available information at the time.
The immediate goal of the response technologies applied during the DWH oil spill was to
prevent oil from reaching sensitive coastal habitats. Although none of the response tools was
completely effective, the use of in situ burning, booms, skimmers, and particularly dispersants
significantly mitigated the impacts of the spill along the coast. Continued remediation efforts
will eventually result in diminishing returns, at which time natural attenuation of the remaining
oil may be the best option. To this end, more science needs to be incorporated into the reme-
diation process (both on- and offshore), not only to determine the most effective methods
to apply under various conditions, but also to feed into the NEBA process of ascertaining the
operational endpoint. Regarding the DWH oil spill, two factors raised important research ques-
tions: (1) the depth of the spill and (2) the large-scale application of emerging new technolo-
gies, such as subsurface injection of dispersants and oceanic in situ burning.
At the time of this writing, the consequences of the technologies applied to contain the
oil and to prevent its reach into sensitive coastal and wetland habitats, as well as the response
of the GoM ecosystem to the spill, have not been, and may never be, fully documented. Work
to understand the fate and effects of the spilled oil is ongoing. Much work to determine the
long-term effects remains. Understanding of the potential impacts of response technologies to
ecosystem services and of the impacts of oil on multiple layers of ecosystems and their services
is limited by the availability of baseline information and of important data collected during the
NRDA process. Until this massive and unprecedented collection of data is complete and the
results made available, any assessment of the impacts of the response technologies will not be
fully informed. These issues will be discussed further in Chapter 6.
Finding 4-11. Any conclusive assessment of the impacts of response technologies on the GoM
marine ecosystem and ecosystem services would be premature at this time, given the amount
of key data and analyses that is being held confidentially in the ongoing NRDA process. None-
theless, the committee believes that the technologies applied offshore mitigated the impacts of
the oil spill on sensitive coastal habitats. A further factor for consideration is that only 3 years
have passed since the spill started, and many substantial impacts may not become apparent
for several more years.
11 http://www.crrc.unh.edu/workshops/dwh_researchneeds_11/index.html.


text:
316 views
Discovering leadership principles from Nehemiah - Part 1. Your Purpose Precedes your Provision. Nehemiah set out to do the Lord's work long before the tools and resources needed to complete the task ever manifested.
Please add a name and description in order to save your playlist to your user profile.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Martin Schulze <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: > Could people please comment on > > http://master.debian.org/~joey/legal.en.html > > I plan to add this to http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors/ and would > like the advice to be correct. I would only add one sentence to the end of part two. It says: (2) The distributor can give the user an offer to provide the source to anyone (not merely your own customers) at a later date. Pointing to a third party (e.g. another company that sells source CDs) is not sufficient. I would add You may charge a fee for providing the source, but only for what it costs you to do so. This may eliminate some disributors fears about having to do unlimited distribution at their own expense. Regards, Walter Landry email@example.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to email@example.com with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Personal carsharing
From Portland Afoot
Personal carsharing, also called peer-to-peer carsharing, is a system that lets car owners rent their idle vehicles to acquaintances or strangers without being present to hand them the keys.
"It's just like Zipcar, except that you're driving somebody else's car," Portland carsharing consultant Dave Brook said in a March 2011 interview. "You're driving a privately owned vehicle that the carsharing company coordinates."
As of October 2011, commercial personal carsharing companies active in the United States included Getaround, operating mostly in the San Francisco area with pilot projects in Portland and San Diego; RelayRides, operating in the Boston and San Francisco areas; and Wheelz, operating at Stanford University and targeting the college market. Spride, another early startup, had partnered with City Carshare, a nonprofit carsharing service in San Francisco.
Another company, Just Share It, was also gathering the names of interested people as of October 2011.
Contents |
[edit] How it works
Though U.S. companies are experimenting with variations on the personal carsharing model, they share a few basic ideas:
- No need for personal interaction: Cars registered for personal carsharing systems can be accessed without the owner being present.
- Owners set their own prices: With personal carsharing, the owner of a car, not the carsharing company itself, sets the rental price, then receives more than half of the rental revenue, according to Brook. "It provides a lot of flexibility to vehicle owners to earn what they think their car is worth," he said. "And they get to see in the marketplace whether other people agree with them."
One San Francisco-area owner of a $109,000 electric Tesla Roadster, has made a car available on Getaround for $50 an hour, reportedly because the owner "wants as many people to experience it as possible."
[edit] History of personal carsharing
See our full article on the history of personal carsharing to learn about the roots of personal carsharing and the prospect for its coming to Portland.
[edit] Potential advantages
[edit] Savings
Because the average U.S. car is parked for 22 hours a day, advocates say a robust network of personal carsharing vehicles would simply be a better use of the nation's money.
[edit] Scale
A traditional carsharing company must have each of its cars active for about 6 hours a day to turn a profit, Brook said.
Personal carsharing, however, allows more vehicles to be available but unused at any given time. This could open new parts of the world -- especially suburbs and small cities -- to carsharing.
"The great benefit of peer-to-peer carsharing is that it's going to allow carsharing to operate in much less dense areas of cities," Brook said. "It changes the economics of the carsharing company -- what it costs to do business."
[edit] Reduced driving
If personal carsharing makes it easier for people to access a car occasionally, they are less likely to own a car, or to own or a second car. Because for car owners many of the costs of driving are fixed, this reduces people's incentive to drive more than they need to.
[edit] Potential disadvantages
In comments beneath a Hacker News thread about Getaround, one person who identified himself as the 7-year proprietor of a rental company listed three concerns about personal carsharing.
"I want to embrace new and innovative models, but this smells of disaster to me," he wrote.
[edit] Rental cars are poorly treated
"Rental cars get treated like crap, whether it's a Buick or a Bentley,' the man wrote. 'Mystery damage' appears in a high percentage of rentals. The customer will, 9 times out of 10, say 'Oh, that was there when I picked the car up.' We solve that problem by having a trained staff member take photographs of the car before and after and have the customer sign a very detailed check-in and check-out report with every inch of the car covered. In the event of a dispute, we are documented up the wazoo. If these transactions are happening person-to-person, how is that documentation being done? It takes at least a few weeks of solid training to get our employees accustomed to having 'the eye' for damage to our cars. I doubt P2P renters are going to train themselves. This, then, opens up every rental experience to a massive potential for liability and dispute, and in the cases where the documentation isn't up to spec, both parties will be left with a very bad taste in their mouths (and potential lawsuits)."
[edit] Insurers may pull out
"Insurance in the car rental world is dicey at best," the man wrote. "Often carriers will provide coverage, but if you've got too many claims (and a business like this is ripe for claims -- see above) then you'll get dropped like a hot potato. And if you get dropped, there aren't many other options. And the few options that exist cost 2x - 10x the price. I've seen this again and again - it's very easy to start and run a car rental company for the first year. Then you have an accident and it comes time for renewal and the story -- and numbers -- change dramatically."
[edit] Cars are lawsuit-prone
"In general, and this is my weakest argument, lots of people try to enter the car rental business because they think of cars as commodities that can be treated like any other piece of equipment," the man wrote. "The problem is that cars are massive rolling accident and lawsuit machines."
[edit] Responses to criticism
Getaround co-founder Jessica Scorpio said her service requires all users to log in with Facebook profiles in order to increase the social pressure to treat a car well.
"If drivers know you have access to their real Facebook profile," co-founder Jessica Scorpio told GigaOm in 2011, "they'll be more cautious."
[edit] Carsharing companies have already addressed these problems
In a comment on this page, Portland carsharing consultant Dave Brook said all carsharing systems face these problems, and have learned to overcome them.
"I first heard the concerns about dirty cars when carsharing first started in the US in 1998," Brook wrote. "Yes, rental cars are treated that way because that's part of the 'deal'. While it occasionally happens, ask Zipcar, or City Carshare, I-Go Carsharing, PhillyCarshare etc. there are penalties when you return a car dirty and if it happens a couple of times you're out.
"And yes damage is a problem - which one budgets for - just like the rental car company does!
"Finally, the important thing to remember about the insurance for peer to peer carsharing is this: it ISN'T rental car insurance. It's full coverage. Rental car companies make a substantial part of their revenues upselling customers on insurance by raising doubts in customer's minds about whether their insurance is adequate."
[edit] External links
The Sightline Institute was an early proponent of personal carsharing, promoting it in several posts on its website:
Did you find this page useful? Could it get better? You're meeting Portland Afoot in its toddlerhood! You can help build this free online guide to low-car life in PDX by clicking "edit" in the right sidebar and adding what you know. Or just leave your questions or ideas below. Thanks for visiting!


text:
Girl riding dick sex video.One girl two men sex video.
Categories: Homemade Porn, Hardcore Sex, Euro Porn, Teen Sex, Dildo Sex
Starring: Toy
Added 2 years, 1048 views, 15 pictures • Report
15, 404, 2 years
Naked teens with a vibrator.Tube hd hot teens masturbate.
20, 306, 8 months
Playful chick sliding her nyloned feet under pantyhose waistband inside..
15, 231, 1 year
Sexy blonde amateur honey has round tits eaten and gives blowjob inside..


text:
When: | Back to Calendar » January 21, 2014 @ 6:15 pm - 7:45 pm | |
Repeats: | Weekly on Tuesday - forever | ✔ Add to Calendar Add to Google Calendar |
Categories: | Happy Hour Leigha Open Level Vinyasa Yoga | |
Leigha Butler
The first time Leigha took a yoga class, she felt she had somehow become more herself. Since then, she has observed that yoga has the power to align practitioners with their noblest intentions, their best selves. To share yoga, she believes, is to share joy and peace. Her classes are rhythmic, flowing and promise to challenge each student's physical limits. She encourages students to modify, adjust or deepen postures to make the practice suit their bodies' unique needs. She especially loves guiding students into inversions and arm balances.
Leigha writes about yoga, healing and wellness for Livestrong.com, Elephant Journal and local publications. When she's not in the studio, she's probably teaching literature or exploring the world on her kayak, in books or on foot with her dog Huck.


text:
Your search for PHILANTHROPY in NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital returned 6 articles
Trustees Begin to Parcel Leona Helmsley's Estate
The bulk of the first $136 million from an estimated $5 billion estate went to medical centers, rather than dogs.
April 22, 2009, WednesdayAn Illness, a Bracelet, a New Hit
Two New Jersey children raise awareness of diabetes with a fund-raiser inspired by Lance Armstrong's yellow-wristband campaign.
December 21, 2004, TuesdayNew York's Cultural Power Brokers; Mixing the Real Estate Business and Everyone's Pleasure
Every few years the New York cultural world produces a power couple of the moment. By any measure this particular moment belongs to Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley. She is leading the effort to transform Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, as head of the orchestra's real...
June 02, 2004, WednesdayNew York-Presbyterian Begins Work on Hospital for Children
New York-Presbyterian Hospital broke ground for its new children's hospital in Washington Heights yesterday, becoming the third medical center in the region to begin construction of a children's hospital in the last few years. The new center will be known as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Children's...
November 17, 2000, FridayFrom Food Distribution to Cancer Aid
HERBERT IRVING, a food distribution executive who lives in Old Westbury, has donated $10 million for cancer research to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. The cancer research and treatment programs at the hospital will be known as the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. ...
July 13, 1997, SundayA Whodunit With a $2 Million Payoff (to Stay Unsolved)
The phone call came in and the caller wouldn't give her name. The secretary buzzed. Dr. Anthony Donn was in with a patient, but he took the phone anyway. "Hello, how can I help you?" said Dr. Donn, the chairman of the department of ophthalmology at the Harkness Eye Institute of Columbia...
December 25, 1994, SundaySEARCH 6 ARTICLES ABOUT NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL:
- Well: To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In
- Op-Ed Columnist: The Deepest Self
- Op-Ed Columnist: The Unhealthy Meat Market
- The Science of Older and Wiser
- Art Review: First, They Came for the Art
- A Kiss Is Just a Kiss, Unless It's an Ad for a Clothing Company
- Wine School: Get Out Your Corkscrew
- Op-Ed Contributor: Why Black Women Die of Cancer
- Private Lives: Let Me Count the Days
- Art Review: Landmarks of Fashion
Rss Feeds On NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Subscribe to an RSS feed on this topic. What is RSS?
Get Alerts On NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Receive My Alerts e-mails on topics covered on this page.
More Alerts »


text:
4th Annual Hispanic Public Relations Association
Professional Development Seminar
Los Angeles, CA – The Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) will host its 4th Annual Professional Development Seminar on Friday, June 19 at UCLA. The half-day seminar will feature two insightful media workshops on key topics to enhance communication skills and a resume critique workshop.
The first workshop will be a media relations forum with top journalists sharing what they consider newsworthy. The second workshop will
Read more
HPRA hosting 4th annual professional development seminar June 19 with leading PR experts and top journalists
On second thought: Valdés-Fauli stays with Jeffrey Group to continue leading agency's Hispanic Practice
Mike Valdés-Fauli, managing director of The Jeffrey Group, will remain with the agency after all, two weeks ago after resigning from the PR firm's New York office in order to relocate to Miami. Now back in South Florida, Valdés-Fauli will remain as the agency's U.S. Hispanic Practice leader. Patricia Taylor, senior manager of The Jeffrey Group's New York office, will assume most of Valdés-Fauli's former responsibilities.
Read more
Hispanic Marketing Job Posted May 27, 2009
(Before responding to employment opportunities listed here please consider the date when the job was posted in order to determine if that position has been filled. Generally speaking, one to two months after posting may be too late to respond.)
Subject: Marketing Gigs in Dallas
A recruiter friend of Juan Torne of HispanicTrending.net is currently filling the brand team for a very successful food/beverage company with US headquarters in Dallas. They market to US Hispanic consumers, with a well known brand family
Read more
LAGRANT Foundation to award $100,000 to 15 ethnic minority college students pursuing PR, marketing studies
LOS ANGELES – The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF) will award $100,000 in scholarships to a total of 15 ethnic minority college students pursuing a degree in advertising, marketing or public relations – seven African Americans, six Hispanics and two Asian/Pacific Islanders.
TLF will be holding the 11th Anniversary Scholarship Recognition Reception and Awards Program on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at New York University's Kimmel Center. CNN National Correspondent, Jason Carroll, will serve as the Master of
Read more
'PRSA Diversity Today' Podcast Focuses on Hispanic Public Affairs
NEW YORK, /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) today posted a new podcast that shares insights on how to execute effective campaigns to influence Latino communities, mainstream constituents, government and institutions in the latest installment of its "PRSA Diversity Today" podcast series. Produced in partnership with WebmasterRadio.FM, the podcast is a monthly series that reinforces the importance of diversity in today's business and society.
With more than half of the
Read more
PRSA-PR Newswire National Diversity Tour visits Boston event recap and photos
BOSTON - On May 8, the Curry College Communication Department hosted the Boston Chapter, Public Relations Society of America's monthly meeting, with an attentive audience of nearly 40 communication professionals from the Boston area listening…and learning.
The program topic, "Maximizing Your Multicultural Marketing and Public Relations Initiatives," spoke to the very challenges that we as communicators…and as educators…face in our day-to-day activities. "Who are your target audiences?" "What do
Read more


text:
After a visit to the Queen Mary, we went straight to Long Beach Harbour. As we walked through the marina, we were recommended by an Argentine lady to eat at Yard House. Read More
Walking along Shoreline Village I was trying to resist all the delicious smells filling the sidewalk, but when I reached Parker's Lighthouse I broke. The food, as my Read More
This was a jewel of a find, right near the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. Located directly across the street, a couple of us dropped in just to catch a Read More
User Rating 4 of 5 stars
This is great bar resturant. The food was tasty fresh and nicely presented. The beers were out of this world. They carry some of the top German, Belgium and US brands. The Read More
Located in the heart of second street, Domenico's offers fabulous Italian fare including pizzas, calzones, pastas and salads. They also have a nice selection of both Read More
This is a very popular family owned and operated small restaurant. They have great pies, great home-style meals and great service. Aside from the wait (because of Read More
Been there, done that? Do tell us about it! Submit a review of this Long Beach restaurant today.
'Jeet?' Shell some peanuts for a snack. This is the best down home southern cooking I've had in ages! Have some Fried Green Tomatoes with those ribs. This is the real Read More
This early 20th-century bank was converted into The Madison Restaurant in 1995. You have that turn-of-the-century "bank feel" as you enter from Pine Avenue. The vaulted Read More
Showing All Restaurants


text:
Hotel Byzantium
Travel Blogs from Kastoria
Rainbow hippie camp
... and thunders i have never seen before, we did a jam with the nature in the tent and went to eat some soup with our jackets from the rain! We were realising how much less the person needs to be happy, especially if the people around you are supporting and caring! Our backpacks would be enough for super long time if we were continuing haveing so many great experience! Just our mind couldnt process anymore of all the things we saw, experienced and all the people we met and the stories ...
(II) Lechovo - Too Many Relatives
... message I received in these parts.
--------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- -------------------
We stayed at a local motel, eight rooms in total. It is owned by my cousin whom I have not seen in five years. She also owns a cafe next door to a church (different from St. Demetrios) on the main street. Her husband died forty days before our arrival. She'll remain in mourning for one year but continue ...
(I) Lechovo - Home of the Brave
... br>
My father's father served as the village priest at St. Demetrios at the turn of the 20th century. His picture is on the wall of the Narthex, the first room one enters to light a candle before entering the body of the church. His love for the Church and freedom from occupiers was renowned - so much so that the Ottoman Turks beheaded him on the steps of the Church when he refused to disclose the insurgents' whereabouts. I ...
Smokey, Smokey Korca
... magnificent views as we are driving. The mountains are snow covered, the trees are green or brown, nothing in between, and towns are nestled in valleys and quite lovely. Driving in the shadows there are some slippery spots which Klodi drives over at about 5 mph. In places where the sun is shining, he goes about 10 mph if there is snow on the side of the road. We stop one place to look at a valley where there is a ...
Into Albania, the Land of Blood Feuds
... the Church of the Holy Archangels, was built by Naum in the 10th century, only to be replaced by a much larger church bearing his name in the 16th century. The saint himself is entombed here, and rumor has it that you can hear his heartbeat if you listen closely enough. Whether or not that's true, I'm not sure; it cost extra to go into his tomb, and we didn't feel particularly inspired to drop the coin, so we skipped it and just walked around ...
- Suites
- Adjoining Rooms
- Free High-Speed Internet
- Room service
- Wheelchair accessibility
- Business Services


text:
SUNRISE, Fla. -- The lineup is set for the Carolina Hurricanes' season opener. The only thing left is to drop the puck.
Canes coach Kirk Muller will use Zach Boychuk on the top line with Eric Staal and Alex Semin. Zac Dalpe will open with center Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner. The third line, as it has been most of training camp this week, will have Jussi Jokinen centering Jiri Tlusty and Chad LaRose.
One of Muller's final decisions was on the fourth line for the opener against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. He will go with Tim Brent at center, with Drayson Bowman and Pat Dwyer on the wings. Kevin Westgarth and Jeremy Welsh will be healthy scratches.
Defensively, the Canes will sit Jamie McBain tonight against Florida. Tim Gleason will be paired with Joe Corvo, Joni Pitkanen with Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison with Bobby Sanguinetti.
"Looking at tonight's game, I think having four lines ... is important," Muller said. "We'd like to think we're ready to go in terms of conditioning, but with the bad ice I think it's nice to have four lines ready. I think that fourth line gives us a good skating line. Florida is more of a flowing, skating type team. So I think that line will match up well.
"They gave us a little trouble last year because of the style they play. I think we know them better. They want to play a high tempo, up and down, free-for-all kind of game. What we have to do is be careful we don't get into a run-and-gun style, sloppy. We don't mind the tempo but we have to do it with discipline."
Cam Ward will start the opener in goal as the Canes take on the defending Southeast Division champs, who will hold a banner-raising before the game.
Both Boychuk and Dalpe have NHL experience. It's not like they're rookies. But they know a lot of eyes will be on them and realize it's important to just play their own games and not try to do too much, too fast.
"Any time you get put with Eric Staal there's a lot of pressure," Boychuk said after today's morning skate. "But I've been there before and I think I can draw on those experiences. It also helps that I've played a few games down in Charlotte (AHL). I feel like I'm ready to take advantage of this opportunity."
Pressure? Boychuk is on a line with the captain, with a $7 million free agent. What pressure?
"Exactly. This is kind of the dream, the way you draw it up," Boychuk said, smiling. "The last couple of years haven't quite gone that way but now I'm here and looking forward to it. It's my first time making the team out of training camp. It feels good. You don't have to start with a disappointment and a setback. Just look forward to take advantage."
Dalpe said many of the same things as Boychuk. He also said his line offers a little of everything.
"I'm excited. I'm not nervous or anything," Dalpe said. "Jordan brings experience and size and 'Skins' brings some creativity and maybe I bring the speed. Hopefully that combination can bring good things.
"You are excited, skating with guys like that. At the same time, you want to stay in the moment and take advantage of it. Hopefully we can create some chemistry tonight."
Muller said it may be good that the Canes are opening on the road. The homer opener is Tuesday, but this game gives the team the chance to get away from Raleigh and get the first-game jitters out of the way.
"There will be ceremonies and a lot going on," Muller said. "A lot of times, when you're on the road, the focus is more on doing everything properly and you don't have to put a show on. I think for the very start that's not a bad thing for your hockey team.
"The guys are focused, they're ready. They're energized. The main thing is it may be sloppy because the ice is so bad. That's a major factor when you play down here. So for the first game it will interesting. If it's like that you're going to see a lot of sloppy play that way."


text:
Items with tag "low-cost neuter"
All items
All items tagged with "low-cost neuter"
Most recent items are shown first.
Show oldest items first
Low cost cat spay/neuter - Spring Break week - appointments available at CAT
Kathy Covey, community blogger
March 26, 2012, 3:12PM
I know it is spring break and probably the last thing on folks mind - getting their cat fixed. However, CAT has a significant number of surgery spots available that we'd love to have filled before the end of this last week of March. Cat owners in Washington, Clackamas, Multnomah, or Clark counties can get their pet cats spayed or...
Full story »
Inexpensive Feline Spay/Neuter Surgeries Offered through July 4th - starting at $10
Kathy Covey, community blogger
June 07, 2011, 11:23AM
Now is the time to get your cat fixed (spayed or neutered). The Cat Adoption Team (Sherwood, Ore.) is offering budget conscious cat owners a special offer this June, which coincidentally is Adopt-a-Cat month. Cat owners are urged to act quickly. There are only 100 appointments available at CAT's high quality, high volume spay/neuter clinic now through July 4th. Call...
Full story »
Inexpensive feline spay/neuter appointments offered for as low as $10 - spread the word
Kathy Covey, community blogger
June 07, 2011, 10:19AM
Inexpensive Feline Spay/Neuter Surgeries Offered – starting at $10 - Through July 4th at Cat Adoption Team - Spread the Word Now is the time to get your cat fixed (spayed or neutered) or to encourage your friends to get their cats fixed. The Cat Adoption Team (Sherwood, Ore.) is offering budget conscious cat owners a special offer this June,...
Full story »
$10 to get a cat spay/neutered?!
Kathy Covey, community blogger
September 13, 2010, 10:38AM
You bet. If you live in the Portland metro area (Clark, Clackamas, Washington, or Multnomah Counties) and are receiving government assistance (Medicaid, WIC, food stamps, SSI, etc.), you may qualify to have your cat or kitten fixed for just $10. If you don't fall under these qualifications above, there are other low-cost options for you as well. Click here...
Full story »
From Our Advertisers
Advertise With Us »


text:
Quick & easy to arrange the appointment online.
The engineer arrived at the precise time arranged.
He identified the faulty component and replaced it within minutes.
What more can I say? It was a perfect result.
Connect with Facebook to get one click access to Trustpilot. It's easier.
Sign up with Facebook