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Case
Study / A Method For Cleaning Foreshores |
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Introduction
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| Fig. 1 A comparison of new
and used RP18 fabric to illustrate its effectiveness
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During a recent incident in the
UK, it was important that the ecological disturbance
in respect to natural vegetation and wildlife should
be disturbed as little as possible. For this reason,
no equipment of any description was allowed to be
used.
More than 20, 000 litres of oil
was estimated to have made landfall on this foreshore.
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Fig. 2 Line of RP18 unrolled
the rocky foreshore to cover low and high tide
lines.
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We decided that
it would be sufficient to unroll rolls of RP18 oil/chemical
adsorbent material. This was done to cover the high
water and low water areas.
Due to its lateral strength because
of its make-up, it was possible to unroll this material
in long lines and simply place rocks at intervals
on top of it.
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Fig. 3 Background shows
one line of RP18. In the foreground RP18 with
emulsified oil.
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During subsequent
rise and fall of the tide, the oiled seaweed and other
vegetation had the oil released from it through the
action of the seawater, and then when the tide receded
the oily material at some point was deposited on the
adsorbent material. The retention characteristics
are phenomenal and as a result after a period of one
to two days, the oiled fabric was removed and put
into plastic bags and new rolls of adsorbent replaced
the soiled material. Towards the end of the clean-up
the fabric only needed to be removed after a period
of four days.
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Fig. 4 Illustration of
unrolled RP18 fabric in different tidal zones
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After only 2 weeks
the local water authority, (for South Wales) declared
the foreshore a clean beach.
It is likely that in other ecological
sensitive areas such as salt marshlands etc, that
this type of removal of oil pollution would be most
satisfactory. It would reduce the amount of disturbance
to the vegetation in the area.
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Home / Case studies / A Method for Cleaning Foreshores
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