The Adrian Curtain
I am a biologist with more than 40 years experience in working with pipelines. I am quite confident that large diameter pipelines can be constructed with little impact on the land. Streams, mountain ranges, wetlands and important wildlife habitat can all be crossed without serious harm and there are often opportunities
to improve the environment with careful planning.
However, when it comes to the marine zone, I don`t think we have enough confidence to minimize the risk variables – especially oil spills – to an acceptable risk. I have been considering possible control measures for decades and, although i haven`t been able to conjure a method that would provide a high degree of confidence in all situations, i have a suggestion that may offer an important step:
THE CURTAIN
The Adrian Curtain is a simple concept that was first proposed by a fellow biologist as a method to partition small lakes for study purposes. The curtain would be like a floating net except that it would hang much deeper. It would consist of a heavy lead line attached to a flexible sheet (curtain) supported by a float line of strong and flexible material like large “ corks “ or inflatable material like an aqua dam. the curtain would be a semi – permanent fixture around loading docks or stored on large rollers in a ship`s hold so they could be played out around a spill. Once the spill is surrounded (contained), it can be pulled into a central pool and pumped to another hold then ultimately re-processed or cleaned back to a finished product.
Ted Burns
RP Bio
3935 PORT ALBERNI HIGHWAY PORT ALBERNI V9Y 7L1
778-419-2072
tedburns42@gmail.com
tedburns.net