The Oil Drum

Generally, because if contamination, it will be lost but it depends a bit on the circumstances.   MSNBC reports there were 44 and shows a picture from Port Sulphur.  By the time we got there all of the obvious mess had been cleaned up. You can see some oil slicks on the water from sunken boats, as the report mentions and in one spot the oil had lost any remaining volatiles and was a very heavy coating on house and road but this was away from the tanks, which had in most cases been cleaned up.  If the drums spill or fracture they are surrounded by an earthern wall and if that is contained and not contaminated it can be collected and potentially reclaimed.  I was thinking more of the material that escaped into the community or into the trees. In driving through the streets immediately surrounding the Murphy refinery we did not see hte heavy oil contamination of the buildings that the report mentions, but we could have been looking in the wrong place.