Minibytes by Al Allen

Minibytes by Al Allen By now, if you’ve been reading my previous blogs, you are aware that my opinions, stories and lessons learned usually involve a blend of technology, oil spill experiences, personal stories, and some of my own opinions and expectations. Hang on…, be patient…, and possibly just tolerate my desire to share so

Minibytes by Al Allen Expectations can stimulate positive incentives, encourage and support creative ideas, and lead to fun and excitement. Some expectations, however, can fuel distrust, fear, impatience, confusion, and sadness. Wow! Haven’t we all allowed both types of expectation to impact our lives — such expectation created from within, or from the world around

Minibytes by Al Allen The mismanagement of expectation can seriously affect the results of an oil spill, including the spiller’s reputation, the costs for damages and cleanup, the creation of new rules and regulations, etc. These and many other impacts will be addressed in this and the next two blogs). Just for fun, I will compare

Minibytes by Al Allen Training typically includes classroom sessions, workshops, drills, field exercises, etc. Regardless of the format and location, there are some basic guidelines that help make such training effective. My own observations on this topic draw from about a thousand training sessions over the past 5 decades. Conducted in well over 75 countries,

Minibytes by Al Allen Why is it that some lessons, often the most humbling, seem burned into memory? As I completed Blog #6 last month involving the controlled burning of oil, I was reminded of a few such humbling lessons, and decided to tell you about two of them this month. The first learning experience

Minibytes by Al Allen And now…, for controlled burning! Yes, I am personally excited about this option because it has challenged and humbled me in so many ways over so many years. Even back in grade school, and later as a career move in the 1980’s, I could feel the incredible potential for “combustion”! We

Minibytes by Al Allen Unfortunately, some people still consider the use of chemical dispersants and the controlled burning of oil as “alternative” oil spill response options. Decades of research, controlled field trials and experience during actual oil spills have proven that the application of chemical dispersants and the use of controlled burning can easily match

Minibytes by Al Allen Putting it simply, most oils float on water. Well…, a few don’t; some float for a while; and many disappear with time due to evaporation, decomposition, and/or natural mixing within the water column. So far my discussions have not been specific to any one type of oil (i.e., crude oil, diesel,

Minibytes by Al Allen In 1969, just a few days after the blowout on Platform A in the Santa Barbara Channel, California, I stood on Sterns Wharf, watching crude oil slide into the Santa Barbara Marina. It had been a week since the spill started, and yet the best efforts that seemed possible at that

Minibytes by Al Allen The rate at which one can encounter a specific volume of floating oil is one of the most important parameters in the overall assessment of a given response system’s ability to access and eliminate spilled oil. Regardless of the type of system under consideration (i.e., skimming, burning or applying chemical dispersants),