Background

• Main Author: Randy Belore
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Beaufort Sea
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.490.6608; http://www.pcs.gr.jp/doc/esymposium/2004/2004_Randy_E.pdf

Although dispersants were researched in the United States in the late 60’s and 70’s their use was not readily accepted due to concerns about their potential environmental impacts. This began to change in the mid-1980’s. Their eventual acceptance as a viable countermeasure is due, in part, to the education of regulators and resource mangers to the pros and cons of dispersant use. SL Ross Environmental Research Limited (SL Ross) had a key part to play in this process. SL Ross is a Canadian company that has been involved in the study of the use of chemical dispersants as an oil spill countermeasure since the company’s formation in 1980. In the early 1980s SL Ross developed a dispersant-use decision-making tool for the Canadian Government’s Department of the Environment (Trudel 1983). The methodology subsequently was applied to the Canadian Southern Beaufort Sea region. The results of the study were presented at the Arctic and Marine Oilspill Program Technical Seminar (Trudel et al. 1985) that was attended by representatives of US oil companies. At that time these US companies were looking for a way to promote informed dispersant-use decisions in the US Gulf of Mexico region and became interested in the approach. An organization called the Marine Industry Research Group (MIRG) funded SL Ross to