API PUBL 4740-2005

$44.20

In-Situ Burning

Published By	Publication Date	Number of Pages
API	2005	76

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Category: API

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Description

You are in the midst of a large oil spill and it's your first month on the job. Approximately 20,000 gallons of a medium-weight crude oil has been discharged into the environment. Earlier you were asked by the Unified Command (UC) to identify options to remove this oil that will also minimize the potential impacts to the environment (see boxes on pages 2 and 3). Based on the circumstances, you recommended that burning the oil in place, in-situ burning (ISB), would provide the greatest value in terms of removing the threat of liquid oil to resources at risk in and on the ground and water.

Now, the On-scene Coordinator (OSC) needs additional information. You have been asked to provide more information on in-situ burning including the operational issues and concerns associated with conducting an ISB, worker and public health issues, and monitoring. Your research will help the OSC verify the appropriateness of this removal method for the incident-specific spill conditions and determine if the requirements for an in-situ burn are achievable within the recommended window of opportunity.

As always, the OSC wants the information as soon as possible. You have had basic oil spill response training, and you have heard of ISB, but this is the first time you have been involved in an ISB response. During your training, you remember that there were several guidance documents that have been developed to assist responders in understanding the concept of ISB.

Purpose of This Booklet

This scenario is fictitious but the circumstances are possible. ISB is a response option that has been used less frequently than countermeasures like booms and skimmers or contaminated soil removal. Consequently, familiarity with the pros and cons of this option is limited. There are ISB "experts" in the United States and internationally, but the intentional practice of this response tool remains relatively limited for both on water and on land situations.

This booklet is the second in series that was developed as a reference document for oil spill response decision-makers. It provides the reader with a comprehensive, concise, yet clear summary of the operational requirements and limitations for ISB, and allows decision-makers to better understand the function of in-situ burning and the tradeoffs facing decision-makers in using this technology when responding to an oil spill on land or on water.

The first booklet, "The Fate of Burned Oil" (API Publication No. 4735), was prepared to provide an accurate summary of the fate and effects of burned oil on water and on land, as well as in the air.

Throughout both booklets, the first time a new technical term is used, it will appear in an ALL CAPS format; this signifies that a more detailed explanation or definition is present in the right or left margin near where the word(s) is first used within the main text.

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