Coast Guard seeks private sector oil spill solutions

Coast Guard seeks private sector oil spill solutions


Do you know how to stop the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Then the Coast Guard wants to hear from you.

On Friday, the Coast Guard Research and Development Center, along with several interagency partners, issued a request from vendors, scientists, government laboratories and nonprofits for ideas on how to stop, contain and clean up the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The broad agency announcement calls for the submission of white paper ideas on five distinct problem areas: tracking and detecting oil; controlling or shutting off the wellhead; developing traditional and alternative oil spill response technologies, damage assessments; and restoration.

The solicitation states that the papers should concentrate "on the underlying technology that supports the solution and describe how the solution will benefit the identified gap area. Focus content on the operational and logistical requirements that are needed to obtain and deploy this particular solution including quantity, availability and scalability of the solution."

The proposals, which will be accepted for one year, also should include details of any previous testing and evaluation and the estimated price of implementing the solution. Papers will be screened based on scientific and technical merit, feasibility, deployability, the availability of the proposed solution and cost.

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