Comparative costs of low technology shoreline cleaning methods (1999)

Dr Karen Purnell

Paper presented at The International Oil Spill Conference 1999, 7-12 March 1999, Seattle, USA

This paper examines the trends in costs associated with the various low technology shoreline clean-up methods that were used in the response to the SEA EMPRESS incident, by drawing on information gathered during the response and the subsequent claims for compensation from the local government councils involved. Analysis of the costs allowed the level of effort invested in shoreline cleaning to be quantified and re-enforced the view that the return on effort invested decreases progressively as the level of oiling reduces. The trends also reflect occasions where additional effort had to be expended at a later stage in the clean-up as a consequence of problems generated by some techniques used earlier in the response.

Categories: Response Techniques, Compensation, Papers