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Fran Ulmer [pictured], the presidentially-appointed chair of the US Arctic Research Commission (USARC), has announced the release of a report entitled "Oil Spills in Arctic Waters: An Introduction and Inventory of Research Activities and USARC Recommendations".

According to USARC, the report addresses the question: "What research is being done on oil spills in ice-covered waters of the Arctic?". Co-authored by the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, the "white paper" is a compilation of recent research and contains recommendations for future work in areas such as oil spill response technologies for cleanup and recovery of oil, data management tools, and the fate of oil and its effects on the environment, among others.

The paper begins with a summary of federal efforts in three topic areas:
(1) Spill demarcation and mitigation, including containment and countermeasures;
(2) Oil spill response technologies for cleanup and recovery of oil, including affiliated data management tools; and
(3) The fate of oil and its effects on the environment.

Following the summary is a discussion of the work of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research (ICCOPR), whose mission is to coordinate oil pollution research among the federal agencies.

The third section describes research efforts by other federal and state agencies, universities, and private entities and the final section highlights non-federal activities of interest, and plans for additional research.

"As oil and gas development and shipping increase in the Arctic, it's important to prepare and plan for possible accidents. Preparation includes research into oil in icy waters: how it behaves, how to locate and map oil under ice, how different response techniques could be adapted to be more effective even in Arctic conditions. The USARC report catalogues the research which has been done and by whom, and it makes recommendations for future research. We hope this will be useful to government, industry and the public,” said Ulmer, who was also a member of President Obama’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 established the USARC. Its principal duties are to develop and recommend an integrated national Arctic research policy and to assist in establishing a national Arctic research programme plan to implement the policy. Commissioners also facilitate cooperation between the federal government, state and local governments, and other nations with respect to Arctic research.

The USARC, which sets goals for the approximately $400 million annual US Arctic Research Program, has urged federal emphasis on integrated Arctic Ocean research, renewed programmes related to the prevention of and response to oil spills in ice-covered waters, and to strengthen Arctic health and indigenous language research.

Links to the USARC report have been included below.

http://www.arctic.gov/publications/oil_spills_2012.html

http://arctic.gov/publications/oil_spills_2012_hi.pdf