THE NET ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT OF A SUCCESSFUL DISPERSANT OPERATION AT THE SEA EMPRESS INCIDENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT The monitoring of oil concentrations in the water column during a dispersant operation carried out at the Sea Empress incident has clearly demonstrated that, although a monitoring program should not be viewed as a prerequisite to response (since the spill site may be too remote to allow monitoring to be set up for the start of the response operation), if monitoring is planned as part of the response, it enables operations to be executed efficiently. The estimates put forward in this paper indicate that the targeted use of dispersants probably prevented 57,000 to 110,000 tons of emulsion from impacting the shoreline and potentially resulting in greatly increased impacts on sea birds, coastal waders, intertidal vertebrates and invertebrates, and amenity areas. The paper shows that these benefits outweighed the potential disadvantages associated with elevated oil concentrations in the water column. The Sea Empress is the first incident that has been monitored in a timely fashion in sufficient detail. The monitoring program demonstrated that the use of dispersants resulted in a net environmental benefit at the Sea Empress incident.