JUNE 12, 2015--The week of June 1, 2015 at NOAA’s main Seattle campus, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division team of oil spill scientists concluded the last of four “Science of Oil Spills” (SOS) workshops planned for fiscal year 2015.

The Seattle workshop included training sessions covering a wide range of spill response topics, as well as a field trip to a Puget Sound shoreline north of Seattle. NOAA thanks Sally Lider of the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Edmonds for supporting this and past SOS field trips.

Classroom exercises demonstrated how viscosity, temperature, sediment type and porosity influence oil behavior on shorelines, and how oil disorders feather structure, impairing waterproofing and insulating effects. In addition to these exercises, students were introduced to the fate and behavior of oil spilled in the environment, oil chemistry and toxicity, and determining cleanup endpoints. Students also learned how to use and interpret Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps, both from a traditional paper format and through the query tools in Gulf of Mexico Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA). Finally, guest lecturers provided information on oil sands and Bakken oils, as well as an overview of the recent risk assessment of the transportation of these materials by rail and sea in Washington.

OR&R's SOS training team was led by training coordinator Nicolle Rutherford. The 39 class participants included representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, other federal, tribal, and state agencies, local government, and industry. Attendees came from across the U.S. and Canada.

SOS workshops are always in high demand in the oil spill response community, and this fiscal year was no exception. To accommodate continued high demand, four SOS classes are planned in fiscal year 2016 including in Honolulu, Hawaii; Mobile, Alabama; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Seattle, Washington. Dates have not yet been set for these classes.

For more information about last week's or upcoming SOS classes, or other OR&R Emergency Response Division training activities, please contact Nicolle.Rutherford@noaa.gov.

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