Freshwater oil spill remediation study at the IISD-experimental lakes area: (The FOReSt Project)

石油泄漏对环境的影响是加拿大公众的主要担忧。监管机构和科学界 社区也不确定在清理不同地区的溢油时采用哪种方法是最好的 环境。需要在实际现场情况下提高清理程序的有效性，以 解决这些重大的知识差距。这里提出的合作研究将由 来自马尼托巴大学、卡尔加里大学、麦吉尔大学、国立理工学院的研究人员 和国际可持续发展研究所-实验湖地区(IISD-ELA)。会的 由一个大型的多阶段项目组成，以检查漏油的命运和行为，并比较漏油 淡水环境中的清理方法。该项目包括来自行业、政府、 原住民和社区团体，并将量化影响(即生态、社会和经济价值 来自失去的生态系统服务)的石油泄漏到淡水环境中。检查有效性，以及 目前淡水系统中的溢油清理方法的影响，是该项目的一个关键组成部分。许多 目前清除溢油的策略侧重于机械清除；然而，这可能是生态上的 破坏性和经济代价高昂。拟议项目的目标是确定以下各项的相对有效性 不同海岸线环境下的物理、化学和生物溢油清理方法。小规模 将使用漏油模型来检查不同清理方法清除残余石油和 在天然北方湖泊的封闭区域维持生态系统功能。第一年将进行的工作 将作为先导实验，旨在确定在全面现场研究中要测试的石油产品 第二年--受影响地区的生态恢复，以及 将通过监测来量化不同的应对漏油的补救方法 第三年和第四年的受控环境。优化应用于溢油的修复策略将受益 加拿大通过显著提高响应效率和更快地恢复生态系统服务。

Environmental impacts of oil spills are a major concern for the Canadian public. Regulators and the scientific community are also uncertain which methods are best to employ when cleaning up oil spills in different environments. Improving effectiveness of clean-up procedures under realistic field situations is required to address these significant knowledge gaps. The collaborative research being proposed here will be conducted by researchers from the Universities of Manitoba, Calgary, McGill, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and the International Institute for Sustainable Development-Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA). It will consist of a large multi-phased project to examine the fate and behaviour of spilled oil, and to compare spill clean-up methods in a freshwater environment. The project includes participation from industry, government, First Nations and community groups, and will quantify impacts (i.e., ecological, social and economic value from lost ecosystem services) of oil spilled into freshwater environments. Examining effectiveness, and impacts, of current oil spill clean-up methods in freshwater systems is a key component of the project. Many current strategies for removing spilled oil focus on mechanical removal; however, this can be ecologically damaging and economically costly. The goal of the proposed project is to determine relative effectiveness of physical, chemical and biological oil spill clean-up methods in different shoreline environments. Small-scale model oil spills will be used to examine the ability of different cleanup methods to remove residual oil and maintain ecosystem function in enclosed regions of a natural boreal lake. The work to be conducted in Year 1 will serve as a pilot experiment which aims to determine the oil product to be tested in the full-scale field study in Year 2. Ecological recovery of the affected areas, together with social and economic impacts of incorporating different remediation approaches for responding to spills will be quantified through monitoring the contained environments in Year 3 and 4. Optimizing remediation strategies applied to oil spills will benefit Canadians by significantly improving response efficiencies and restoring ecosystem services more quickly.