» Project Review

As part of the massive response effort to the MC252 well release in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the Grand Isle Shipyard Decontamination Facility was established on the Louisiana coast. Miller Environmental Services, Inc. was the primary contractor at Grand Isle coordinating continuing decontamination and waste management activities for a total of nine months.

More than 3.7 million feet of hard boom was deployed in the MC 252 incident response. Miller was responsible for pressure washing and decontaminating miles of oily boom deployed as part of the federally-led response effort. A high-efficiency automated hard boom decontamination technology - know as a "Boom Blaster" - was developed during the response.

Miller coordinated contract workers who helped manage large quantities of wet, oily absorbent boom and other materials. They transferred the bagged materials from boats at the dock and processed them through a specially modified dockside waste compactor system known as the "Big Squeeze." This system reduced the volume of oil contaminated material by 70%. The reduced volume resulted in a four to one reduction in the number of roll-off container trips to the landfill identified for the project.

The facility provided decon for a wide variety of equipment during the event. Using pressure washers, hand wipes and citrus based soap solutions, technicians decontaminated skimmer vessels, boats of all sizes, barges, trucks, all terrain vehicles, beach cleaning units, sand washing machines and a wide range of oil spill support equipment. Once decontamination was completed on each unit it was either redeployed or demobilized.

The operation included "white glove" hand cleaning and detailing of some sophisticated or somewhat delicate equipment such as electronics, wiring, valves and controls on equipment deployed to remove tar balls from the shoreline.

Additionally, the operation did daily personnel decon on hundreds of people at the end of their work shift performing hand cleaning of oiled beaches and shorelines.

The Decontamination Facility employed several hundred people daily with all personnel getting the required 40-hour HAZWOPER training and participation in daily safety briefings and training.