WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Navy pollution response experts have shipped 98,000 feet of oil containment boom as of May 20, to the Gulf of Mexico, as part of the combined effort to reduce the environmental impact of the underwater oil spill at an exploratory oil rig off the coast of Louisiana.
Naval Sea Systems Command's (NAVSEA) Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) has positioned equipment and personnel from Texas to Florida to support the oil spill response efforts led by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security.
"With a single phone call from the U.S. Coast Guard, 66,000 feet of open ocean boom and nine self-contained skimming systems, and the professionals to install and operate them, were dispatched (representing the initial shipment). That's your Navy - a 24-hour Navy, incredibly ready and trained to respond to a wide variety of national taskings," said Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy, NAVSEA commander.
The Navy oil booming equipment is designed to divert the oil spill from an identified area. According to Capt. Patrick Keenan, NAVSEA's director of Ocean Engineering, Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, the booming equipment was first deployed to the western tip of Ship Island, south of Gulfport, Miss. Keenan said the Oil Containment Boom System is the primary containment equipment at an oil spill site, and consists of vans, boom, air compressors, and necessary equipment to support the various types of containment booms. SUPSALV's Oil Containment Boom Systems are portable and maintained at strategic locations in a state of readiness for rapid deployment to a spill site.
Eighty-five 18-wheelers of vital equipment arrived in Gulfport, Miss., within 48 hours of that one call, and 24 hours later NAVSEA personnel were at sea combating this terrible spill, added McCoy. >>>
