In-Situ Oil Burning in the Marshland Environment: Recovery and Regrowth of Spartina Alterniflora, Spartina Patens, and Sagittaria Iancifolia Plants.
In-Situ Oil Burning in the Marshland Environment:
Recovery and Regrowth of Spartina Alterniflora, Spartina
Patens, and Sagittaria Iancifolia Plants.
(698 K)
Mendelssohn, I. A.; Lin, Q.; Bryner, N. P.; Walton, W.
D.; Twilley, W. H.; Mullin, J. V.
VOLUME 2; NIST SP 995; Volume 2; March 2003.
Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program (AMOP) Technical
Seminar, 25th. Including Technical Seminar on Chemical
Spills (TSOCS), 19th and Biotechnology Solutions for
Spills (BIOSS), 4th. Environment Canada. Proceedings.
VOLUME 2. June 11-13, 2002, Alberta, Canada, Environment
Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 785-807 pp, 2002.
Keywords:
in situ burning; oil spills; cleaning; pool fires; heat
flux
Abstract:
A series of burns was conducted to evaluate the impact
of intentional burning of an oil spill in a marshland
environment. Oil spilled in sensitive wetland
environments pose unique problems associated with
cleanup because mechanical recovery in wetlands may
result in more damage to the wetland than the oil
itself. In-situ burning of oiled wetlands may provide a
less damaging alternative than traditional mechanical
recovery. Many factors, including plant species, fuel
type and load, water level, soil type, burn duration,
may influence how well a wetland recovers from an
in-situ oil burn. Ten burns were conducted in a 6 m tank
to expose 80 plant specimens to conditions which were
designed to simulate a spill of diesel fuel and the
intentional burning of the spilled oil. Plants were
positioned at four different elevations, -10 cm, -2 cm,
0 cm and +10 cm, relative to water level. Forty of the
plants were instrumented with thermocouples in order to
monitor soil temperatures during burns which lasted for
either 400 s or 1400 s. The soil temperature data
indicate that a 2 cm layer of water should provide
sufficient protection to prevent permanent damage to the
plant/root system.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899