Page 8: of Marine News Magazine (August 2013)

A new NOAA report that examines national oil pollution threat from shipwrecks has been presented to the U.S. Coast Guard. With as many as 20,000 recorded shipwrecks in NOAAs database, the May 2013 report ? nds that just 36 sunk- en vessels scattered across the U.S. sea? oor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nations coastal marine resources. Of those, 17 were recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and oil cargo. Based on vessel contents, condition, environmental sensitivity, and other factors, NOAA has determined that 6 vessels are high priority for a Most Probable (10%) discharge, and 36 are high priority for a Worst Case Discharge (Table ES-1). Table ES-1: Number of vessels in each priority category for the 87 priority wrecks. NOAAs Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) project identi? es the location and nature of potential sources of oil pollution. Knowing where these vessels are helps oil response planning efforts and may help in the investigation of mystery spills--sightings of oil where a source is not immediately known. In 2010, Congress appropriated $1 million for NOAA to develop a list of the most signi? cant potentially polluting wrecks in U.S. waters, speci? cally addressing ecological and socio-economic resources at risk. Those funds were not intended for oil or vessel removal. NOAA maintains the internal Resources and UnderSea Threats (RUST) database of as many as 30,000 sites of sunken material. Initial screening of these shipwrecks revealed 573 that could pose substantial pollution risks. This includes vessels built after 1891, when U.S. vessels began using fuel oil; vessels over 1,000 gross tons and built of steel, and tank vessels. Additional research narrowed that number to 107. Table 1-1: A sampling of domestic potentially polluting wreck remediation projects. Category RankNo. Wrecks for Worst Case DischargeNo. Wrecks for Most Probable Discharge High Priority366 Medium Priority4036 Low Priority1145 Vessel (Year of Sinking)Project YearLocationActionRemoved (bbl)Oil TypeDepth (ft) Tenyo Maru, 19911991WAPartial Removal620Diesel540 Union Faith, 19691999LAPartial Removal400HFO125 Ehime Maru, 20012001HIPartial Removal665Diesel2,000 Roy A. Jodrey, 19742003NYPartial Removal143HFO200 Catala, 19652007WARemoval820HFOSurface William Beaumont, 19712009TXRemoval380HFO40 Ex- USS Chehalis, 19492010SamoaRemoval1,430Gasoline160 William McAllister, 19632011NYRemoval5Diesel160 BY THE NUMBERSNOAA Identi? es Lurking Environmental Threats 8 MNAugust 2013MN August2013 Layout 1-17.indd 87/23/2013 7:39:48 PM