Freshwater shoreline response field guide
Executive summary
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has developed a series of field guides to provide technical support tools for decisions regarding the evaluation of freshwater and marine shorelines and treatment options during an oil spill response. The new freshwater shoreline response guide is aligned with and complements the most recent editions of the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) Manual (ECCC, 2018) and the A Field Guide to Oil Spill Response on Marine Shorelines (ECCC, 2016). ECCC is engaged to provide science-based information to the spill response community and develop an expertise in spill response.
The purpose of the freshwater shoreline response field guide is to provide advice and guidance on the protection and treatment of freshwater shorelines threatened or affected by an oil spill. This field guide focuses on conventional tactics normally available to responders and appropriate for freshwater shoreline environments. The content of the field guide is organized to describe key elements of:
- health and safety for field teams
- Net Environmental Benefit Analysis (NEBA)/Spill Impact Mitigation Assessment (SIMA)
- freshwater environments
- oil fate and behaviour in freshwater environments
- response – planning, treatment, special topics, and completion and monitoring
This field guide includes:
- stand-alone “Shoreline Information Technical Sheets” for shoreline protection tactics
- different types of freshwater shoreline substrates
- shoreline treatment tactics
The information sheets have been developed as a quick reference for planners and field responders, and to provide a visual reference for the range of tactics that may be considered during an oil spill response.
Key learnings from inland oil spill responses that occurred in the last 25 years and the freshwater environment expertise of the project team were important sources of knowledge used to develop this field guide.
Freshwater shoreline response guide (full document - PDF)