For Release: October 19, 1999

Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402
Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management will conduct training on two of its new oil spill recovery boats, or "skimmers," Wednesday, October 20, and Thursday, October 21, in Providence. The training is geared for contractors hired by DEM and oil companies for emergency cleanup of oil spills, and staff from DEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. About 50 emergency response personnel are expected to attend.

DEM will launch the skimmers at 10 a.m. and conduct operations for several hours each day, after short classroom training sessions, at the Manchester Street Station of the United States Generating Company (Narragansett Electric) at Point Street and Allens Avenue, in Providence. A small number of oranges, which float and act the same way as oil, will be used to simulate spilled oil.

The two oil spill recovery boats are among three DEM first responders designed to skim oil out of the water and store it in their hulls. The boats, delivered this summer and introduced on Governor's Bay Day, are permanently stationed at the harbors of Providence and Jamestown, where oil storage and transfer operations are concentrated.

The 23-foot boats are flat-bottomed mini-barges that can be trailered and deployed at oil spills within half an hour. With a crew of two, each boat can lower its skimmer over the bow into the water, and advance into a floating spill to collect and separate oil from the water. Each boat can hold 1,300 gallons in its hull temporarily, before it is pumped to a larger storage container. Equipped with twin 50 horsepower outboard motors, the boats can operate at one to three knot working speeds continuously, and can transit at more than 20 knots.

The boats were purchased at a total cost of $400,000 with monies drawn from the state's Oil Spill Prevention, Administration, and Response Fund which was established in 1996 after the North Cape oil spill.

They were built by JBF Environmental Technology, a division of Slickbar Products Corp. of Seymour, CT. Slickbar staff is conducting the training.