![[Photo: workers in raingear spray oiled beach rocks with high-pressure hoses.]](washing.jpeg)
"Workers using high-pressure, hot-water washing to clean an oiled shoreline. In this treatment method, used on many Prince William Sound beaches, oil is hosed from beaches, collected within floating boom, then skimmed from the water surface. Other common treatment methods included cold-water flushing of beaches, manual beach cleaning (by hand or with absorbent pom-poms), bioremediation (application of fertilizers to stimulate growth of local bacteria, which degrade oil), and the mechanical relocation of oiled sediments to places where they could be cleaned by wave and tide action."
Revised: March 7, 2001
Office of Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
Note: Inipol EAP 22 was only 'technically a fertilizer' It was actually a surfactant... like using Spray 'n Wash *
Phosphorus... * ? Nitrogen? Not much C:N:P = 62:5:1
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One worker reported... "Our supervisor/Company said... Nothing is happening at 120 degrees F..."
"So turn the heat up to 180 degrees F!"
(So how much oil is brought into the air for the workers to breathe and get on their skin?)
What was in the Crude Oil? (MSDS) with hazard substance info *
"The human toll alone is not worth it!" Dr. John Middaugh, Alaska State Dept of Epidemiology
"Right
after the spill occurred, there was a tremendous focus on the
potential toxicity of the oil. There was a question that if the oil
contained substances that could potentially harm workers on a
long-term basis, or on a severe short-term basis, and induce
sterility or cancer or birth defects, then it would be
unethical to
undertake cleanup at all," recalled Middaugh, the state epidemiologist.