BP's Operation Deep Clean--could dilution be the solution to beach pollution?

T he BP Deepwater Horizon event released approximately 206 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. 1 BP's primary strategy for handing this large spill was to use the dispersant COREXIT to disperse and mix this enormous volume of oil over a larger volume of seawater. This is the time-honored strategy of dilution as the solution to pollution. While this strategy appears to have been successful for much of the released oil, it was not completely effective. Beginning around June 9, 2010, a considerable (but unknown) amount of oil began washing onto the white sandy beaches of the northern Gulf of Mexico between Pensacola Pass, Florida, and Fort Morgan, Alabama. Oil deposition along the shore was significant, at least until about mid-July, 2010, and remnant oil continues to wash onto these beaches today. The economic value of these beaches is significant. For example, in 2008, more than 2 million people visited the Alabama Gulf Coast region, spending more than 3 billion dollars and directly supporting more than 59,000 jobs. 2 From a socioeconomic , aesthetic, and ecosystem services perspective, this 40-mile shoreline is simply priceless. Besides forming the southern border of the Alabama coastal communities of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, two national and three state park/refuges are located along this shoreline. Within these parks and refuges, miles of undisturbed beach/dune ecosystems exist, providing habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals, many of which are endangered. The beaches serve as nesting sites for green, loggerhead, and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles, and as habitat for nongame birds migrating south in the fall and north in the spring. BP has employed an active beach cleanup strategy for the (primarily) amenity beaches of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alabama. Coined " Operation Deep Clean " , the goal of this strategy 3 was to " have the beaches cleaned by Spring Break 2011 ". According to BP, areas of buried remnant oil requiring deep cleaning were systematically identified, followed by removal using one or more techniques. 3 We observed that the identification process employed a small auger drill to complete shallow borings at various locations judged by the assessment crew as potential cleanup sites, based on the presence of remnant oil. If buried oil was observed in quantities deemed sufficient by the assessment crew, the location was flagged for deep cleaning. The main approach used for deep cleaning …