The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) enforces compliance with oil spill response requirements for facilities located seaward of the coast line. It commissioned Genwest Systems, Inc., to assess the existing planning standard for response to offshore oil spills with mechanical oil skimming systems, known as the Effective Daily Recovery Capacity (EDRC), and to consider improvements to that standard. In its report, Genwest proposed an Estimated Recovery System...
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The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) enforces compliance with oil spill response requirements for facilities located seaward of the coast line. It commissioned Genwest Systems, Inc., to assess the existing planning standard for response to offshore oil spills with mechanical oil skimming systems, known as the Effective Daily Recovery Capacity (EDRC), and to consider improvements to that standard. In its report, Genwest proposed an Estimated Recovery System Potential (ERSP) calculation as an alternative to EDRC. BSEE specifically asked the National Research Council committee to consider three aspects of the ERSP approach in the Genwest report: the proposed methodology of ERSP, its applicability, and the computer model behind ERSP.
A Review of Genwest Effective Daily Recovery Capacity (EDRC) Project Final Report is an objective technical evaluation of the report produced by Genwest Systems, Inc., on the Effective Daily Recovery Capacity (EDRC). This report evaluates the scientific basis of the methodology, applicability, and modeling approach used in the Genwest report. In response to its statement of task, the authoring committee found the new approach for estimating the efficiency of oil skimmers presented by Genwest, (ERSP), to be basically sound and a substantial improvement over methods currently employed by BSEE in its rule-making. However, there are a number of simple improvements that can and should be made to the ERSP approach that would be extremely useful. This report examines the methodology and applicability of the ERSP calculation and discusses Genwests's computer model.