BANGOR, Maine — Two teams of oil spill cleanup experts from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection left for Panama City, Fla., on Monday hoping to lend a hand in the cleanup of the nation’s worst-ever oil spill.
Their mission will consist of 12-hour days traveling around the Gulf of Mexico in specialized watercraft from now until at least summer’s end. That much time on the water might sound like a cherry assignment, but according to DEP spill expert Thomas Smith, the novelty wears off. For one thing, the all-aluminum oil-skimming watercraft operate at a top speed of 2 knots, which is slower than 3 miles per hour.
“In the oil-skimmer business, 2 knots is really flying,” said Smith.
The oil-collecting boats, which belong to a fleet of five ships in the DEP’s oil cleanup flotilla, resemble industrial versions of pontoon boats bedecked with heavy equipment. When they’re in operation, a custom-made machine is mounted to the bow, along with two pontoons that form an 8-foot-wide “V” to collect the oil. One person drives the boat while another makes almost constant adjustments to the oil-collection contraption. All the while, a generator on board thumps away so loudly that the workers must wear double layers of hearing protection.
“It probably isn’t the most glamorous part of our job,” said Nathan Thompson, another DEP employee who will spend much of the summer removing oil from the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s so loud you can’t really engage in conversation,” he said. “Being out on the water and in the sun all day, it gets pretty tiring.”
The Maine crews have been summoned to the disaster site by BP, the oil company struggling to stop the underwater gush that has spewed an estimated 69 million to 131 million gallons of crude oil into the gulf since an April 20 explosion aboard a deep-water oil rig, according to The Associated Press. Smith said numerous watercraft are removing oil from the water, but probably few if any of them resemble the ones owned by the Maine DEP. They were designed and built by a former Southwest Harbor-based company called JBF Scientific.
Each “barge,” as they are called, can collect up to 1,200 gallons of oil before having to be offloaded. When there’s just a sheen of oil, as is usually the case, the barge can operate all day without unloading. When the oil is thicker — as it is in the gulf — the tanks top off within 45 minutes or so.
Though Maine isn’t known for having oil refineries or rigs, the gulf of Maine is one of the busiest oil ports on the East Coast. Between offshore and inland leaks, the DEP’s oil and hazardous materials unit responds to about 800 incidents per year, according to Smith.
“It seems kind of counterintuitive to leave this equipment here in the warehouse when it can be used in the gulf,” he said.
Six DEP employees will travel to Florida at first, but others will rotate through the assignment in two-week intervals to give their co-workers a break. Smith said just about everyone in the unit volunteered for the assignment.
“Everyone’s kind of excited about this,” said David Flannery of Bucksport, a mechanic for the DEP.
Despite the teams and equipment that are headed south, the DEP will not leave Maine unprotected. Another oil-skimming barge like the ones going to the gulf and two 150-foot vessels that perform similar operations remain at the ready should there be an oil spill in Maine.
