Purpose:

U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force facilities are required to comply with Federal, state, and local legislation relating to the control of aquatic oil pollution. Federal legislation requires reporting and cleanup of any spill large enough to cause a surface sheen on the water. In California, the Lempert-Kene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1990 requires the implementation of an oil pollution monitoring program at all marine oil transfer facilities in the state, yet no Service branch to date has implemented a compliant program. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and evaluate the SpillWatch automated oil spill detection system at marine facilities.

Description:

Rapid, reliable spill detection is an essential yet often overlooked part of oil spill prevention and response strategies. Early detection enables responding authorities to take immediate corrective action to stop and contain a spill, thereby offering an effective means of minimizing the environmental and financial impact of a spill event. SpillWatch is an automated oil spill sensing system that provides continuous, all weather, real-time monitoring of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants in the marine environment. It has been developed to assist responders by providing immediate notification of the presence of a petroleum spill in or on water. The fluorescence-based multispectral in-situ sensor operates from just below the water surface, continuously testing for increased hydrocarbon concentration or surface sheen, which are indicative of a spill. It can be deployed as a single unit or installed as an array of multiple sensors to provide wide area coverage. When a spill is detected, a signal is immediately transmitted to a base station computer for analysis, display, and logging, and an alarm is sent via telephone.

Benefits:

The SpillWatch oil spill monitoring/alarm system will provide a highly-effective means of responding to the hundreds of oil spills that occur annually. The system will provide substantial cost savings by eliminating the reliance on error-prone human visual spill detection, reducing the frequency of large spill occurrences, and enabling immediate response to all spill events. Given the high cost of oil spill cleanup, an installed monitoring/alarm system could easily pay for itself through the prevention and spread of spilled oils.
(Anticipated Project Completion - 2005)

Contact:

Mr. John Andrews
SSC San Diego
Code D-361
53475 Strothe Road
San Diego, CA 92152-6325
Telephone: (619) 553-2769
Fax: (619) 553-2876
E-mail: jandrews@spawar.navy.mil