U.S. NAVY SALVAGE REPORT DEEPWATER HORIZON ... - ESSM

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
and retired and the High Speed Current Buster will be the only open ocean VOSS system in the
ESSM catalog.
5-4 Booming
Oil Containment boom is a key component of oil spill response. It was used extensively to
protect sensitive environments from Ship Island, MS to Grand Island - Port Fourchon, LA.
Booms were briefly deployed further east to protect Mobile Bay, AL but the tidal currents were
too great for a successful barrier as deployed. By early July, more than 63,000 feet of boom had
been deployed but the mid-summer storms took their toll on exposed boom. Boom laying and
servicing was time consuming and required substantial resources. OSV WES BORDELON and
OSV CASPIAN were primary boom support vessels. After Hurricane Alex in July and Tropical
Storm Bonnie in August, boom cleanup tasks were necessary as well as boom laying and
tending. Figure 1-2 shows some boom that had washed up on the beach in East Bay, LA. The
boom that was torn free from its moorings was damaged beyond economical repair and was
removed from the daily reported boom available or boom deployed totals. By mid August, after
recovery of a number of storm damaged booms it became apparent that much of the recovered
boom was worn or damaged beyond economical repair.
5-4.1 Systems Used
SUPSALV deployed the following boom to the Gulf Region. This boom totaled 98,000 feet.
ESSM
Cat No.
Boom Type
Length
Deployed
to GOM
Region
P19090 26" BOOM SYS 3000' 9000
26" BOOM (New, not assembled) 3000
P19100 42" FUG BOOM 2000' 22000
P19100 USS 42"HB BOOM 2000' 42000
P19100 USS 42" BOOM 2000' 4000
P16200 SALVAGE SKIM VAN (26” BOOM) 8000
P19070 18" NON-INFLATABLE BOOM 6000
P19080 18" INFLATABLE BOOM 4000' 4000
Table 5-2. ESSM Boom Deployed to the Gulf.
5-4.2 Deployment
Deploying and maintaining oil deflection boom was one of the major areas in which SUPSALV
supported the Unified Command. Upon initial tasking, SUPSALV immediately ordered 66,000
feet of oil containment boom into the Gulf Region. Ultimately, this number was boosted to
98,000 feet. Boom deployment was the first task 00C accomplished. Even before all of its gear
had arrived, SUPSALV began laying cascading sets of deflection boom off the western tip of
5-17