While many of you were cooking ribs and drinking beer in preparation to watch the Super Bowl, spreading manure in your garden to avoid watching the Super Bowl, or blissfully telling me you don’t even own a television, I decided to ride my bike and photograph oil booms in action. Ok. I know.
Earlier this week I posted a story about pre-booming the transfer of petroleum products on the Sound. Oil booms are also used in other circumstances to prevent oily bilge water or other mishaps from fouling our waters. Are they effective?
Here is Sunday’s line up.
This power boat sank at Shilshole Bay Marina, then was raised and ended up covered in oil. Although the booming looks great, as you’ll see below, not much can stop an oil sheen.
Below on the left is a yellow fence boom at Fisherman’s Terminal waiting to be deployed and an orange boom around boat. There is little “stand-off” between the orange boom and the hull so if there was a spill there is not much room to contain the oil between the hull and the boom.
Quite a line up! What do you think?
Hi Jenny:
Thanks for your comments. As far as I know the booms I photographed are not required. They are just a precautionary measure in case a hose comes loose, fills the bilge with fuel or oil and the bilge pump comes on discharging the oily mess into the water. The photos illustrate how hard it is to properly deploy and maintain a boom so it is effective. And, as I tried to point on in the “Illusion of safety” article, oil-booming is simply not an effective tool. It is a silly piece, low-tech piece of plastic that is ineffective in the 20 knots of wind that are buffeting my boat as I write. Sue
Sue–It’s astounding how sloppy these boats were boomed, either out of ignorance or laziness (or both?). Aren’t there written guidelines with illustrations for boaters to follow? Are these posted near docks or at the Port of Seattle for them to refer to? Will the above violators be contacted and cited AND educated about Booming 101? Hopefully so! Jenny