Vejledning om strandrensning - Naturstyrelsen

Summary
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency has prepared the present updated
guideline for cleaning of oil contaminated beaches and other coastal areas. The
main target group for this guideline is local municipalities holding responsibility
for coastal cleaning in case of oil contamination of coastal areas.
In chapter 2 of the present guideline, the general delegation of responsibility in
case of pollution of the sea, of coasts, beaches and harbours is described. Chapter 3
gives a number of guidelines for municipal contingency plans for remediation of
coasts, beaches and harbours after oil pollution. Chapter 4 describes the rules laid
down concerning distribution of expenses for emergency preparedness and control
measures between the authorities involved.
Chapter 5 gives a short description of some of the most important oil pollution
incidents during the last 35 years. The chapter exemplifies different cleaning
actions and effects of oil contamination. This will give an insight in the diversity of
oil contamination and illustrate the experiences from previous oil contamination
e.g. the importance of alert plans.
Chapters 6-13 include descriptions of different beach cleaning methods used for
certain stretches of coast in relation to the stretches’ geologic shape, biological
vulnerability and the size and type of the oil spill etc.
The aim of the guidelines is to point out beach cleaning methods that pay as much
attention as possible to the vulnerability of the different coast types to oil pollution
and the cleaning work.
Previous oil pollution incidents have shown that the character of the pollution and
consequently the most effectual cleaning methods vary from incident to incident.
As this makes it impossible to draw up detailed guidelines for cleaning work
covering any conceivable oil pollution incident at a stretch of coast, an assessment
must be made for each oil pollution incident stating which cleaning and disposal
methods will be most suitable.
To support this assessment, the physical properties of significance for spreading
and transformation of different oil types on the beach, are reviewed in chapter 6.
This is further detailed in chapter 7, where it is described, how it must be expected
that spilled oil will be degraded and spread after spills at sea. Biological impacts of
oil pollution are outlined in chapter 8. The background for this is that knowledge of
the potential biological harmful effects influences how the cleaning must be
approached, and which coast lines must given priority to protection against the
spilled oil.
The clean up of the different coast types are described in chapter 12. Moreover this
chapter includes a description of how it can be prioritised which coast lines should
be protected first in case of threatening oil pollution and which coast lines should
be given high priority regarding cleaning after an oil pollution has occurred. The
chapter also includes a more detailed review of cleaning methods for different
coast types, and it is described how after-cleaning could be accomplished.