Research center is hub for oil spill fix ideas - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Research center is hub for oil spill fix ideas

The once-sleepy Coast Guard research branch — with projects that usually take months, if not years to complete — has been transformed into a hive of activity by the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

Out of the 84 researchers at the center, only 12 are working on other assignments. All new projects are being postponed until at least 2011.

“We have essentially shut down all of our new [research] starts,” said Capt. Matthew Sisson, commanding officer of the Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center in New London, Conn.

The center immediately responded to the spill by providing subject matter experts to the Gulf of Mexico and a fire and safety test detachment to coordinate volunteers. Center staff also helped with an interagency effort to find out how much oil was flowing from the well head.

But the center soon became inundated with calls and e-mails from the public, eager to submit ideas. Some people complained they had sent ideas to BP but never heard back.

In May, then-commandant Adm. Thad Allen asked the center to coordinate a group that would become an idea clearinghouse: the Interagency Technology Assessment Program. It includes many federal agencies, as well as the Navy.

On June 4, IATAP issued a broad agency announcement through the www.fbo.gov website, soliciting white papers that addressed five areas, from well control to remediation of the shore line. The center assigns each paper a tracking number within 24 hours. The staff reviews the ideas and either sends them to the federal on-scene coordinator, dismisses them or refers them to the appropriate federal agency for analysis, Sisson said.

From June 4 through July 15, the center fielded more than 3,500 submissions; 80 ideas have been selected for either immediate consideration or further evaluation. The center also is reviewing the 600 ideas submitted prior to the announcement. It has hired contractors to assist with the workload.

The bulk of the center’s efforts are on ideas that focus on oil collection and removal, he said.

The center has access to the BP submission database so it can see which ideas are duplicative. Many are, Sisson said.

Sisson recently reached out to the Navy to vet proposals. Navy Reserve Capt. Chuck Gunzel is leading the Naval Sea Systems Command and Supervisor of Salvage and Diving team on IATAP.

“We are their window on Navy resources,” Gunzel said.

The team already has loaned booms, oil skimmers and personnel to the Gulf.

Sisson, who was stationed in New Orleans for at least seven years, said he considers the city his adopted home and hopes to retire on the Gulf Coast. “Like everyone else watching it, it hurts me in the pit of my stomach, too,” he said.