Antipollution Pillows

Chicken feathers prove capable of soaking up oil spills

Dead water birds, their gooey bodies strewed along a filthy shore. It is a sadly familiar scene in the wake of a major oil spill. For one man, however, the sight evoked more curiosity than pathos. After viewing photos of the 1967 Torrey Canyon grounding off the Cornish coast, Al Crotti, an American international lawyer based in London, had a novel idea: "If feathers attracting the oil are part of the problem, why can't feathers be part of the solution?" Why not indeed? Now being added to the arsenal of weapons for fighting oil spills is Seaclean, the catchy commercial name for something cheap, uncomplicated and ubiquitous--chicken-feather pillows.

Crotti's barnyard brainstorm has already undergone tests at a 31,500-gal. spill in the Mississippi River 20 miles downstream from New Orleans. The oil had spread over a 14-mile area, washing into coves and turning the marshy ground into a black mush the locals call "gumbo." While strings of floating booms helped contain the spill, a four-man team from Peterson Maritime Services, the largest private firm in the gulf area treating oil spills, began tossing out about 100 lumpy white squares from their flat-bottomed swamp boats. Almost at once, the muck began to stick to the pillows. When they were pulled from the river 15 min. later, clear water miraculously began to drain from them, while each 8-oz. bag retained 8 lbs. of oil sludge. Says Peterson's Ben Benson: "We've been working with infrared detectors, 'super sucker' vacuums and high-speed skimmers. Now we're into chicken feathers. I don't know how much research or development you can do with chicken feathers, but they definitely work."

Some research was done, says Dan Barry, a Miami businessman who helped Crotti underwrite the bags' development in the U.S. "We tried fancier cross-stitching and buttons on the bags, and refining the feathers, but they just didn't work as well. The way they naturally are is the way they work best."

In addition to being cheap and easily obtainable, Crotti claims that the bags have several advantages over other methods. Unlike booms or boats, they can be used in heavy seas, where they can be strung together and dropped over oil concentrations. Unlike straw, another natural absorbent, the pillows are easy to retrieve with a long-handled pole or a net rigged between two trawlers. They are very light, easy to stack and transport to spill sites. After use, they can be buried or burned without causing toxic smoke.

Not everyone in the oil-cleanup business is enthusiastic about Seaclean. For example, Joseph Nichols of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation considers chicken feathers just another absorbent and "small-scale stuff," not suitable for containing large spills at sea. Nevertheless, cleanup crews may need all the help they can get.

Though there have been no large-scale tanker disasters since 1979, lesser oil spills are a common, and underreported, occurrence. Pollution experts estimate that every year 3 million tons of crude seep across U.S. coastal waters. Though feathers may seem a risibly simple solution to a high-technology problem, pillows are being taken seriously. Barry notes with satisfaction, "We already have two oil companies that have stopped laughing and placed trial orders."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.