OPEN OCEAN SKIMMER PERFORMANCE TESTS

ABSTRACT An oil skimmer was tested in a controlled crude oil dumping off the New Jersey Coast in early 1980. The program was sponsored by the U.S. Navy (USN), Director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage through the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (OHMSETT) Interagency Technical Committee comprised of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), USN, and Environment Canada. The tests were designed to evaluate the Spilled Oil Containment Kit (SOCK) developed by Shell Development Company. The skimmer had been designed as a physical attachment to an oil industry work boat in a vessel of opportunity deployment mode. The USNS Powhatan T-ATF fleet tug as chosen as a similar vessel and one that had an oil spill recovery operations mode. The test program is described including the oil/water distribution and collection system, deployment and retrieval of the SOCK, the onboard fluid measurement, data analysis, logistics...