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From: Heal the Harbor’s Oil Spill and Fire Suppression Projects October 3, 2001 Ellen Faurot-Daniels, Oil Spill Program Supervisor Dear Oil Spill Program Supervisor Faurot-Daniels: I received your letter dated August 6, 2001. Of course the oil companies want to use dispersants to “make their spills seemingly go away”. Of course, they are going to say, “that the answer to pollution is dilution”. Unfortunately, there are some in the OSPR, EPA, NOAA who are going to take the “easy way” and support the use of dispersants, instead of seeking out newer and better technologies that collect oil rather than just “make it go away”. I would hope that the Coastal Commission and Staff do not submit to this flawed approach, even though it seems easier to spread the pollution to the water column than to force the oil companies, OSPR and other lead agencies to use the “best available technology” to clean up and take away the mess. Heal the Harbor would like to put on a small demonstration of shallow water oil spill herding and oil freeze recovery as well as use of some small prototype hardware, if possible. We use olive oil as a reasonable non-toxic substitute for crude and fuel oil for public demonstrations. With best wishes, I remain Sincerely yours, Tim Beck, M.A. |