Erika oil spill : some innovations in the French shoreline response and beach cleanup methods

This paper described the main phases of the Erika shoreline cleaning operation. The Erika tanker sank off the southern coast of France on December 12, 1999, spilling an estimated 20,000 tons of Bunker C fuel that was left to drift and weather at sea for more than 10 days through severe sea conditions. More than 400 km of shoreline was affected by the oil. This included sandy and rocky shores, dunes, cliffs, marshes, muddy flats as well as highly anthropogenic shoreline. Most of the oil was removed between December 24, 1999 and the end of January 2000, although cleaning operations continued. There were many innovations in the French oil spill organization in the area of shoreline response. The polluter, TotalFinaElf, accepted a moral obligation to succeed and to use whatever means needed to do so. The company was instrumental in developing collaboration between response workers from private companies and POLMAR (state) workers, consisting of non-specialized and frequently relieved personnel from the military and fire fighting units. TotalFinaElf used environmental expertise to define the cleaning procedures and to decide when beaches could be opened for recreational use. Call for tenders were put out for beach and cleaning operations. The major innovation in this response was the hiring of professional climbers to work at sites that were difficult to access. Specific botanical work sites were delineated and quads and specific geotextile sheets were used to limit the degradation of terrestrial vegetation. Rocks were cleaned with hot water without pressure and anchored fishing nets were used to catch drifting oil. 1 ref