What to Do About an Oil Spill: Everything You Need to Know

Did you know that the size and frequency of oil spills have decreased in the last fifty years? While they’re much less frequent, an oil spill will still occur on occasion. It’s vital to know everything necessary to handle an oil spill cleanup.

If you’ve been looking into mitigating the risk of an oil spill hazard, we’re here to help. Read on for some of the most important tips on how to reduce the damage of an oil spill.

Have a Plan

One of the most important things that you can do is have a plan ahead of time. It’s much more effective to work preventatively instead of reacting to the disaster.

There should also be different plans in place for the different places an oil spill could occur. Make sure you know what to do in case of a spill at your oil refinery as well as if a spill occurs coastally or at sea. Knowing how to handle each situation can help keep the crisis down.

Mitigate Damage

Once an oil spill has occurred, it’s important to make sure you’re mitigating the damage of the accident. Oil can spread quickly and will become much more difficult to deal with.

Because of this, you’ll want to mitigate the damage as much as you can. Block off areas that the oil can spread to and attempt to force away as much wildlife as you safely can. Every little bit counts, both for the environment and for the good of your company, so do your best to lower the impact of the spill.

Clean Up Quickly

Along with mitigating damage is something that every oil spill needs – a quick cleanup. These spills get worse and worse as time goes on, and every moment matters.

Do everything in your power to react quickly. Stop more oil from spilling, such as with a leaking pipeline, and begin cleanup immediately. It’s important to have workers that have undergone cleanup training so that they can do everything possible to get the mess cleaned up.

That said, severe oil spills can take years to fully clean. Understand that your job isn’t an overnight fix and that you’ll likely deal with this situation for quite a while.

Proper Training

You need to have the proper people on board to handle these sorts of situations. Dealing with an oil spill requires thorough compliance training and an understanding of the task at hand.

Because of this, you need to ensure that the team you have working to fix the oil spill is skilled. Make sure that they’ve undergone oil spill cleanup hazard training and are knowledgeable about the safety risks and the importance of their job. Handling oil spill cleanup is highly-skilled labor, so ensure that you have the best people for the job.

Handling an Oil Spill

An oil spill is a massive hazard to the environment and disastrous for the average company. Do your best to have the right people on the job to handle the situation and get everything handled as fast as possible. For more information on handling oil spills, feel free to browse our extensive website.