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

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
with the state agencies and local jurisdictions. This added safety factor delayed demobilization
for weeks after the last oil had been sighted. On 16 August, USCG FOSC Plans Chief gave
concurrence to begin decontamination of all skimmers and directed SUPSALV to coordinate with
Task Force Commanders for redeployment. This decision started the process. MARCO
skimmers were collected by Bayou Bee and delivered for decontamination and because storing
them at the State Pier, Gulfport relieved the local jurisdictions of taking care of them and their
crews, the ICPs were satisfied with the compromise. The last Louisiana skimmers (ICP Houma)
were decontaminated and restaged in Gulfport on 3 September and only 3 skimmers remained
to be decontaminated from the Mississippi coast (ICP Mobile).
Meanwhile, oil containment boom, which had been exposed to extreme weather for several
months, was being picked up as workboats were available. All material exposed to oil was taken
to the decontamination sites. As expected, much of the recovered boom was deteriorated or
damaged beyond economical repair. Individual boom removal decisions were dependent on the
jurisdiction the boom supported. SUPSALV received permission at about the same pace they
could sustain boom recovery operations.
SUPSALV was sending material staged at Gulfport, that was not used, back to its original ESSM
base. This included material such as berthing vans, shop vans mooring systems and pumping
systems. Finally, on 13 September, SUPSALV received permission to ship all skimmer systems
back to the ESSM bases. That same day, SUPSALV vacated Venice, having completed
shipping all boom and skimmers systems deployed there. Used bladders were evaluated and
determined that disposal was more cost effective than cleaning which reduced decontamination
time. The final SITREP was issued on 20 September. At that point, all OSVs were offloaded
and awaiting demobilization, nearly all ESSM equipment had been shipped and final boom had
just been recovered from New Harbor Island and was undergoing decontamination.
6-2 Restocking / Replacement / Upgrades Identified
Coast Guard RFAs were issued to replace all deployed boom that was damaged beyond
economical repair. Oil storage bladders and NOFI Current Busters were also authorized for
replacement. These are listed in Appendix B. After the long operation, all hardware and
mechanical systems would be refurbished before storing the equipment ready−for−issue. As the
oil spill response concluded, the ESSM system maintenance task was just beginning.
Beyond conducting maintenance and replacing damaged systems, SUPSALV and ESSM
managers took the time to evaluate their ability to sustain oil spill recovery in the harsh
environment of the Gulf of Mexico. They came up with a set of equipment improvement
recommendations which could make the next employment easier. These included changes to
the boom fittings and mooring systems. Improvements to the High Speed Current Buster
systems were implemented such as increasing the number of spares of critical wearing parts,
providing tools for cleaning the debris from the current buster pockets, and adding a knuckle
crane and an aluminum outrigger float to the equipment van. These internal upgrades will help
ensure SUPSALV can sustain operations if called upon to support another long-duration
deployment.
6-3