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Introduction
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A major oil spill
occurred as a result of a deliberate act of vandalism
during the Christmas holiday period of 1987, at a
major stone quarry in Derbyshire, United Kingdom.
The senior management of the company
concerned were called out. The Police and Water Authority
were duly informed of the incident.
The oil, which was 3,500 secs heavy
fuel oil, had only been delivered a few days before
the spill incident and was stored in specially heated
tanks. Total quantity of oil which escaped was estimated
to be approximately 350 tonnes.
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| General view of the spill site,
series 5000 and road tankers |
The oil initially found its way into
the surface water drainage system. Within two days of the
spill the area experienced heavy rainfall.
The water deluge took the spilled oil
through a railway embankment and settled as a pond of floating
oil with an indeterminate amount of oil on the bottom, which
had seeped through prior to the heavy rains.
A tanker company was called in to deal with the problem.
They provided a large hydraulically driven submersible pump
and road tanker units fitted with gulper (gully sucker)
pumps.
OPEC'S Involvement
On the third day of the operation, it
was realised that the pumps deployed were mainly pumping
water. It was considered necessary to request the use of
specialist equipment to uplift the surface oil with a much
reduced amount of water. OPEC.'s local agent was contacted
for assistance. We responded with a site visit that day.
It was two days later before we received confirmation to
go ahead. During that time, the company on whose premises
the spill had occurred, cut a new temporary road access
to site, to enable tankers and the Series 5000 to be positioned
in the best possible way.
We were advised that up to the time we
arrived on site, only three tanker loads of oil and four
part loads of mainly water and a nominal amount of oil had
been removed.
The Series 5000 was set up and the integral
transfer pump was connected to flexible hoses, in order
to deliver the recovered oil, by top loading into road tankers.
From the time that we set up during the
afternoon of the day of arrival on site and up to the evening
of the following day, the Series 5000 had transferred 6
full tanker loads of oil.
The clean up operation
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Fig. 1 shows a general
view of the site and pinpoints the initial position
of the Series 5000. Note that the "pond"
had been made narrow at about a mid-point and a temporary
scaffold had been erected from which was suspended
the hydraulically driven submersible pump. This later
proved to be a limiting factor, since although the
Series 5000 unit was pulling the surface oil towards
it, the restriction introduced by narrowing the "pond"
meant that the first part was cleared of oil and then
had to be filled in, so that the equipment could be
re-deployed.
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Fig. 1 Spill Site - general view
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Fig. 2 gives a clear
indication of the down-reach and outreach of the equipment.Note
that even within a few minutes of starting the operation,
signs of oily material flow to the machine became
apparent.
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| Fig. 2 Deployment mode
of Series 5000 - A side view |
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Fig. 3 begins to
give a clearer picture of the oil movement to the
equipment by the action and direction of the chain
belt. Also it is a good illustration of how simple
it is to operate. The operator is just visible on
the opposite side of the machine, well away from the
point at which the oil is removed and transfer pumped
from the machine to road tanker. Again, even within
ten minutes of the operation starting, a tide mark
around the whole of the "pond" becomes visible.
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| Fig. 3 Pull of oil to
the machine begins to be apparent. Note top of loading
tanker |
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Fig. 4 is the best
available shot of the main drive roller meshing with
the chain belt, at which point the oily material is
removed. The recovered oil is deposited in the hopper
directly below the roller. This is just visible to
the right hand side of the protective fabric cover
which is there to stop residual splashing of oil during
machine transit on site from one operating position
to another. From this point the oil is pulled through
the integral transfer pump to tank storage or road
tanker.
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| Fig. 4 View of oil removed
from chain belt into chain hopper. |
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Fig. 5 and 6. These
two close ups show the oily material being drawn to
the equipment, even from the side.
When the surface oil was eventually removed, some
of the oil on the bottom was also uplifted with the
Series 5000, but there was a problem of the bottom
lying oil since some was entrapped in foliage, i.e.
long grass and small shrubs.
The Series 5000 has obvious
potential and should be used for permanent installations
on oil dumps and lagoons. It has also tremendous potential
for use on asphalt pits and lagoons of oily material
in Venezuela. |
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| Fig. 5 Close up view
of surface oil being pulled towards the Series 5000
by the action of the chain belt |
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| Fig. 6 Close up view of surface
oil being pulled towards the Series 5000 by the action
of the chain belt |
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Home / Case studies / Inland Heavy Fuel Oil Spill
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