Thread: U.S. Agency Warns of Pollution Danger from Old Wrecks

U.S. Agency Warns of Pollution Danger from Old Wrecks

Tuesday May 21, 2013

Some shipwrecks may pose an environmental hazard


Thirty-six sunken vessels that have rested on the U.S. seafloor for decades represent a potential threat to marine resources, according to a report presented by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the U.S. Coast Guard.
NOAA recommended assessment and potential removal of bunkers and oil cargo from 17 of the ships.
The ships include 13 merchant marine ships that sank during World War II, as well as a barge lost in 1936, two motor-powered ships that sank in 1947 and 1952 and a tanker that exploded and sank in 1984.
"This report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the potential oil pollution threats from shipwrecks in U.S. waters," said Lisa Symons, resource protection coordinator for NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
"Now that we have analyzed this data, the Coast Guard will be able to evaluate NOAA's recommendations and determine the most appropriate response to potential threats."
“

The Coast Guard will ...determine the most appropriate response

Lisa Symons, Resource Protection Coordinator, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

The ships cited as hazards were chosen from 20,000 shipwreck sites in a NOAA database based on factors including the vessel's size, the likelihood of significant amounts of oil remaining on board, the type of fuel used and the potential environmental effects from spills in the surrounding area.
The Coast Guard, which is responsible for mitigating coastal marine oil spills, will review the assessments and incorporate them into its plans for addressing marine environmental issues.
The National Marine Sanctuaries office notes that most old wrecks "are left alone and are largely forgotten until they begin to leak, often becoming the source of 'mystery spills' that harm coastal economies and environments."
That may have been the case last year when an oil spill spread off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, possibly from a US Army vessel that sank there in 1946.
　
　
http://shipandbunker.com/news/am/451242-us-agency-warns-of-pollution-danger-from-old-wrecks

POLLUTION DANGER FROM SHIPWRECKS DOWNGRADED

Leaking oil tankers were torpedoed by Germans in WWII

By SETH BORENSTEIN Associated press 12:01 a.m.May 21, 2013Updated7:18 p.m.May 20, 2013

WASHINGTON
Shipwrecks lying deep off America’s coasts are more often historical artifacts than present-day threats from leaking old oil tanks, a new federal report says.
While 87 of the ships — most sunk during World War II by German submarines — have the potential to leak tens of millions of gallons of oil, the report issued Monday concludes that “the scope of the problem is much more manageable than initially feared.”
“Our coastlines are not littered with ‘ticking time bombs,’” government scientists wrote. They note that only six of the 87 are likely to be serious enough to be disasters to local economies and coastlines, the report said.
Still the wrecks are hulking reminders of lost lives in war and the environmental mess of oil, especially to Frank Terry, who experienced them firsthand.
The first of two German torpedoes hit the oil tanker W.D. Anderson as it steamed along the Florida coast one late February night in 1942. Terry ran to the side, hurled himself over the railing and into the water. His boat was in flames and the 23-year-old was swimming for his life.
“I just wanted to get out of there,” he recalled Monday from his home in Parkesburg, Pa. Days after the sinking 15 miles off southeast Florida, Terry wrote in an account for The Associated Press: “I saw the ship go up in flames while I raced from death as the burning oil spread over the water.”
He bumped into bodies in the tainted water. A spotlight bore down on him. He figured it was the German U-boat, so he ducked. But he had to come back up to breathe. American voices yelled to him and American arms tried to pull him aboard. But Terry was coated in oil and he slipped away from rescue at first.
Eventually, Terry was hauled aboard, hosed down, and the next day in the hospital he found out he was the sole survivor.
And now, 71 years later, the federal report says Terry’s old ship is not only one of the 87, it is one of the six likely worst cases. It’s a grave site for 35 souls, but also a potential despoiler of the tourist-dependent Florida coast because it may still have more than 5.6 million gallons of crude oil on board. Jupiter is the nearest city.
The overall picture, though, is not as bad as expected. The potential for pollution from the 87 shipwrecks is less than half the 200 million gallons the BP well spewed into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 in that disaster, agency officials calculate.
There are about 20,000 shipwrecked vessels off the nation’s coastlines. Most of those either finished leaking long ago, ran on coal instead of oil, are too small or aren’t near U.S. vulnerable land.
“There are only six that really keep me up at night, but we don’t know where they all really are,” said Lisa Symons of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who wrote the study. Those six have the biggest potential to be coastal pollution problems because even if they do spill only 10 percent of their oil, they could cause what could be a local-scale disaster, she said. They don’t have to be a worst-case spill to be a disaster.
Symons said NOAA doesn’t know the exact location of all of them, just where they were last seen before they sank. Three of the six worst potential problems are off Florida: the one near Jupiter, one 25 miles north of the Florida Keys, and another south of the Keys. Another is 100 miles southeast of Savannah, Ga.; 50 miles east of Charleston, S.C. and 60 miles north of Montauk Point, N.Y.
Of the 87 ships identified as potential polluters by NOAA, 52 were lost in World War II, up and down the Atlantic coastline.
　
　
　
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/21/tp-pollution-danger-from-shipwrecks-downgraded/