The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced this week that it is soliciting proposals for oil spill response research projects and will be investing up to $5 million to support these projects in 2014. In a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) released on the federal government's business opportunities website, www.FedBizOpps.gov, the bureau called for white papers focusing specifically on one of eight topic areas for proposed research covering oil spill response operations on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
The deadline for submitting white papers is April 10, 2014. Topics should be limited to the following:
- best practices for emergency response exercises;
- scientifically based comparison and ranking of worst case discharge scenarios;
- technology and methodology for separation of oil from slush or frazil ice;
- effectiveness of dispersants in slush and broken ice conditions;
- development of geo-referencing identification tag system to inventory and locate response equipment;
- in-situ disposal of decanted oil-water mix from commercial skimmer operations in the Arctic;
- minimizing risk to spill response personnel via remote control technology tagging of oil under ice for future recovery;
For more information on these topics and directions for submittal, please view the announcement here.
This is the second BAA from BSEE for oil spill response research proposals within the last year. The first announcement, with up to $7 million in support, closed in January and can be found here. Over 67 proposals were submitted and of those, BSEE has requested 31 follow-up with full proposals.
BSEE is the principal federal agency funding offshore oil spill response research. The bureau supports a robust research program that includes operation of the National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, where many of today's commercially available oil spill cleanup products have been tested. Government agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy as well as private industry and oil spill response organizations from around the world train their emergency response personnel with real oil and their own equipment at BSEE's Ohmsett facility in Leonardo, N.J.
To learn more about BSEE's oil spill response research program and recent research, visit the OSRR website. Interested parties are encouraged to view the information presented on the OSRR website prior to submitting white papers.
