Monitoring oil spills under the ice
The Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 went on for 87 days. The breached underwater well pumped out an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Monitoring technology allowed responders to direct resources to intercept the spreading oil plume and prevent the catastrophe from becoming even worse. Monitoring techniques and technologies that are reliable in the warm open waters of the gulf aren’t necessarily much use in the Arctic, especially if there is oil spreading underneath several feet of sea ice. Sam McClintock says it’s a scenario that’s bound to happen. “It’s just a matter of when the next oil leak is going to occur up there,” said McClintock, CEO of Midstream Technology. “Hopefully it won’t be catastrophic.” Midstream is a Williamsburg-based tech-development firm. Midstream officials have been working in conjunction with Mark Hinders, professor of applied science at William & Mary, to develop technology to track oil spills under ice. The group is collaborating with Evigia Systems and URS Group to develop the under-ice monitoring technology, backed by two contracts with the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), part of the United States Department of Interior. Midstream is a subcontractor under URS group. Hinders ...
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