AN INTEGRATED PROJECT TO ANALYZE AND DETERMINE THE CONSEQUENCES OF A CHEMICAL SPILL ON THE WEST COAST OF FRANCE: AN OPERATIONAL POINT OF VIEW THROUGH THE ECEIncident

Abstract

Within a few decades, the European coasts and seas endured major environmental incidents of chemical pollution. For example, the “Ievoli Sun” incident, October 31, 2000, which was transporting 4,000 tonnes of styrene or the “Ece” incident, February 01, 2006 in the Channel, with a cargo of 10,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid. When a disaster occurs, authorities aspire to a faster and more effective management of pollution to limit the consequences. To this end, French authorities which take response measures for health or economic protection during a marine pollution incident need efficient software tools to assess the risks related to marine pollution. This allows them to quickly set up a relevant safety area, the aim being to protect the populations and the environment, to mobilize the appropriate response tools and to anticipate the situation in the short or medium term. It is in this particular and significant context of crisis management of marine pollution that the CLARA (“Calculation related to accidental releases in seawater”) project was developed. This project, funded by the French Research Ministry, has been carried out, since November 2003, by the Ecole des Mines d'Alès, Cedre, Ifremer, Mítío-France and Ineris, in order to jointly simulate

Metal Release from Contaminated Estuarine Sediment Under pH Changes in the Marine Environment

“…Hydrodynamic and physicochemical simulation of an acid spill during the ECE incident (10,000 t of H 3 PO 4 acid). (Gouriou et al, 2008).…”

“…CO2 leaks can cause short-time drops down to pH=3.0 in specific sea areas around the vents, showing high spatial and temporal variability in pH (Beaubien et al, 2008). In the case of marine chemical spills, pH values below 5 and above 12 have been reported for seawater areas directly surrounding the chemical spill location for a limited period of time (Gouriou et al, 2008;Mamaca et al, 2009). Table 1.…”