The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for conducting research and developing a model for the fate and transport of oil-particle aggregates (OPAs) in natural rivers after an oil spill incidence.
The developed model, FluOil, will be capable of assessing the impact range of
OPA after an oil spill, and demonstrate its suitability as a decision support tool by using the Illinois River as a case study.
The vulnerability to communities and national, State, and County fish and wildlife areas downstream can be assessed by demonstrating the propagation of OPA plumes and areas of deposition after a hypothetical oil spill incidence at the upstream part of the Illinois River that simulated with realistic flow patterns.