7-4.3 Cleanup and Recovery:

Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult task. Although the physical removal of spilled oil, cleaning and decontaminating the area assist large-scale recovery of the environment, but may harm the substrate biomass.

Cleanup and recovery depends upon following factors some of which are interrelated;
-type of oil spilled,
-water temperature(affecting evaporation and biodegradation),
-types of shorelines and beaches involved
-ecological protection,
-socioeconomic effects,
-health risk

7-4.3.1 Environmental Recovery Rates:

The rate of recovery of the environment after an oil spill occurs depends on

-oil composition
-properties and the characteristics of the area impacted,
-theoutcome of intervention and remediation measures.

7-4.3.2 Methods for Cleaning Oil Spills:

Cleaning up oil spills involve an array of physical, chemical and biological methods as discussed below;

1. Booms–Booms are temporary floating barriers used to contain an oil spill. They help inconcentrating that so skimmers, vacuum can easily collect or any other collection method.

2. Skimming- Skimming is based on the principle that oil being lighter than water floats on its surface and thus can be easily collected and removed. Skimming system involves boat with boom that collects oil, a boat with large tank that hold oil and an actual sucker. Skimming depends on thickness of the oil slicks, the amount of debris mixed with oil, the consistency of the oil and current state of sea.