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Navy Stands Ready to Respond to Oil Spills

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090502-08
Release Date: 5/2/2009 3:09:00 PM

By Robyn McGinn, Office of the Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy voluntarily participates in the national Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) -- developed as a mechanism for the government and oil industry to achieve compliance the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) passed by Congress.

This comprehensive act expanded prevention, preparedness and response requirements in regard to oil spills and provided guidance on spill prevention, mitigation, cleanup and liability.

It is the policy of the Navy to participate in the drill and exercise requirements of this voluntary program.

PREP exercises are viewed as continuous improvement opportunities to achieve the highest level of oil spill preparedness. The Office of the Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) implements the equipment exercise schedule for the Navy as required by the PREP guidelines.

For PREP exercises, SUPSALV utilizes the Emergency Ship Salvage Material (ESSM) System and other Navy assets, such as the T-ARS and T-ATF class of salvage ships.

The ESSM System is a managed network of emergency response equipment stockpiles, pre-positioned to support and supplement U.S. Navy Fleet capability in the areas of salvage, diving, pollution response and Underwater Ship Husbandry (UWSH). This equipment allows SUPSALV to operate autonomously in remote locations for open ocean spills, inland spills, arctic spills and spills relating to salvage. An extensive inventory of equipment is maintained at four manned ESSM response bases in the U.S. and one unmanned base in Bahrain.

In August of 2008, a SUPSALV exercise was performed at the Cheatham Annex ESSM base in Williamsburg, VA.

In an effort to fully test and document the T-ARS class' capability to support oil response operations, the USNS Grapple (T-ARS 53) was integrated into the exercise.

While conducting skimming operations, the T-ARS and the T-ATF class ships are capable of simultaneously towing 26,000 or 50,000 gallon oil storage bladders, which store the oil recovered during skimming operations. They also provide suitable deck space for the hydraulic power packs for pump-skimmer systems, as well as berthing and mess capabilities for the skimmer augmentation crews. Both the T-ARS on board booms and the T-ATF hydraulic cranes provide the capability to launch and recover skimmer and other pollution assets at sea.

The exercise began by using SUPSALV's NOFI Current Buster™, a combination towed containment boom and skimming system that collects oil up to four times faster than conventional equipment.

After testing the Current Buster™, Grapple successfully embarked a self-propelled Marine Construction and Design Company (MARCO) Class V Skimming System. To simulate transit to the operational site, the skimmer system and boom handling boats were launched utilizing the ship's boom. The supporting containment booms were launched through the stern anchor chutes. The Class V skimmer then conducted skimming operations independently.

Following the successful completion of the Class V operation, the Grapple docked and deployed two boom mooring systems with 300 feet of 42-inch ocean boom. The ship and its crew proved to be capable of efficiently supporting pollution abatement operations.

This exercise demonstrated the capability of the T-ARS ship class to fully support an oil spill recovery mission. The versatility of the T-ARS and T-ATF ships, augmented with SUPSALV ESSM pollution response equipment and personnel, enables them to effectively respond to major pollution incidents.

For more news from Ocean Stewardship, visit www.navy.mil/local/oceans/.