OR&R presented at a forum on spills of heavy oils (Non-buoyant) hosted by the ISCO in Detroit on September 9, 2014.

Participants include U.S. and international representatives of the oil and maritime industries, spill response companies, academia, and the federal government. NOAA was a co-sponsor of the forum and OR&R Director Dave Westerholm served as moderator.

Dave Westerholm also delivered opening remarks, addressing several aspects of the emerging issue of bitumen and dilbit (diluted bitumen) production, including spill response, changing trends in oil transportation, the challenges that heavy oils present in recovery and cleanup, and NOAA’s efforts to assess the environmental impacts of oil that sinks.

OR&R’s Assessment and Restoration Division’s Jessica Winter gave a presentation titled "Ecological Impacts of Dilbit Spills: Considerations for Natural Resource Damage Assessment," discussing the Enbridge oil spill as a case study and describing the state of the science regarding behavior of spilled dilbit and implications for predicting and assessing injuries to natural resources.

Scientific Support Coordinator Steve Lehmann gave a presentation on the DBL 152 oil spill.

For further information, contact Jessica.Winter@noaa.gov.

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