Oil Spill Behavior in a Winter Arctic Environment

INTRODUCTION Under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, the USCG has the responsibility of preventing pollution in. U. S. ports and coastal waters. With the 1969 discovery of large reserves of oil on the Alaskan North Slope, a comprehensive Coast Guard research program was initiated to determine the fate and behavior of crude oil discharge's in an arctic environment. Arctic field tests were conducted off of Barrow, Alaska, in June, 1970,4 and at Port Clarence, Alaska, in Jan., 1972, in an attempt to quantitize oil spreading on and under ice, oil aging on ice, unique interaction characteristics between snow and oil, and the effectiveness of existing oil recovery techniques and treating agents. Supporting research is now underway that will comprehensively define the problem of arctic oil pollution. All aspects of the problem must be defined before techniques and hardware to control arctic oil pollution can be developed. With North Slope production conservatively estimated at over 2 million BOPD by 1980, a logistics problem is encountered during crude oil transportation to refining and marketing areas. The primary production area, Prudhoe Bay, is located on the coastal plain of Alaska North Slope. The proposed Trans-Alaska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay will cover over 750 miles to the Valdez port terminal, where the oil will b transferred to supertankers for shipment to the continental U. S. These two systems of moving crude to market, combined with the hazards that may be associated with production in offshore arctic areas, present a potential oil-spill problem that cannot be overlooked. TEST SITE AND EQUIPMENT DESCRIPTION The winter tests were conducted on the Bering Sea and Port Clarence Bay during Jan. and Feb., 1972. The test party was based at USCG Loran Station, Port Clarence, located below the Arctic Circle at 65 ° 15'N, 166° 55'W. The station is situated at the tip of a narrow spit that separates Port Clarence Bay and the Bering Sea. Port Clarence Bay, directly east of the station, is a sheltered body of salt water approximately 15 miles across. Directly westward is the Bering Sea that ice bounds Port Clarence up to 7 months a year. To the south of Port Clarence Loran Station, on the narrow spit, are numerous fresh water lakes and areas of bare tundra. The weather and daylight characteristics of Port Clarence are depicted in Figs. 1 and 2. As crude oil will be the single largest petroleum product transported in the arctic regions, a North Slope crude was chosen as the test oil. Ten standard 55-gal drums of a Prudhoe Bay crude were obtained through the courtesy of Atlantic Richfield Co. Analysis of a typical North Slope crude is found in Appendix B.