The pump-and-skim pollution treatment method, also known as "pump-and-skimming", is a commonly used technique for removing pollutants from contaminated surface water. This method is often used to remove hydrocarbons, such as crude oil, lubricating oils and waste oils.
The pump-and-skim process involves pumping contaminated water through pipes to a treatment area, where it is stored in a treatment tank or reservoir. The water is then skimmed to remove floating hydrocarbons from the surface. Skimmed hydrocarbons are stored in a separate storage container for appropriate disposal.
Pumps used to pump contaminated water are often fitted with filters to prevent debris and solids from entering the treatment system. Skimmers can also be fitted with oil separators to remove contaminants from the water more efficiently.
Pumped-skimming is a relatively simple and inexpensive method of removing oil from surface water. This method is often used to respond rapidly to oil spills at sea, as well as to remove pollutants from water bodies contaminated by industrial run-off.
However, pump-and-skim may not be effective in removing pollutants that have sunk to the bottom or are dissolved in the water. In addition, this method cannot treat large quantities of contaminated water at the same time, as it requires a manual pump-and-skim operation.
For in-situ remediation, other treatment methods can be used, such as controlled natural attenuation, biodegradation, biosparging, thermal desorption, dual-phase extraction, flushing, chemical oxidation, pump-and-treat, chemical reduction, sparging or venting.