Oil Leak From A Sunken WWII Wreck Threatens
the Fourth Largest Lagoon In the World
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On 20 November 1944, a Japanese
manned suicide torpedo struck and
sank the US Naval tanker, USS Mississinewa,
in 40 meters of water within Ulithi
Lagoon in the northwestern Pacific
Ocean. The tanker was loaded with
19 million litres of aviation and
heavy marine fuel oil, most of which
was trapped within the wreck, where
it lay undisturbed for the next
57 years.
However, on 6 August 2001, a tropical
cyclone passing through the pacific
disturbed the wreck, causing an
estimated 70,000 litres of oil to
leak into the lagoon, creating hardship
for the 700 islanders that live
on the surrounding atoll and rely
heavily upon the lagoon's fisheries
resources. The leak was eventually
plugged by contractors to the US
Navy, however another 18 million
litres remain on board, threatening
to spill every time a cyclone sweeps
by or another tank corrodes through.
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The United States Government,
who maintain sovereignty over the wreck
and its cargo, have offload the remaining
fuel to prevent further pollution of the
lagoon. The offloading was completed on
18 March with a total of 1.8 million US
Gallons pumped out.
Asia-Pacific ASA (APASA) carried out a detailed
oil spill risk assessment to provide planners
with an understanding of which environmental
resources would be under threat if an uncontrolled
oil release occurs. This work was carried
out in collaboration with Trevor Gilbert
from the Australian Maritime Safety Agency
(AMSA) who has been assisting the Pacific
Ocean Pollution Prevention Programme (PACPOL).
The study made use of ASA's ocean/coastal
hydrodynamic model, HYDROMAP, and
three-dimensional oil spill model,
SIMAP, to predict the potential and
most likely trajectories and fates
of oil originating from the wreck.
Contour maps showing the probabilities
of exposure by surface slicks, and
potential concentrations of physically
entrained oil, and dissolved oil components
(as aromatichydrocarbons) were some
of the outcomes of the study. This
information will provide a guide for
contingency planning and risk assessment
and help the placement of protective
equipment to guard sensitive resources
and the selection of the optimal timing
of operation.
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While this study only focused on
the risks of exposure from spills
associated with the USS Mississinewa,
there are another 1800 known WWII
wrecks in the South Pacific that are
loaded with oils, chemicals and ordnance,
which also pose risks to the Pacific
environment.
BFSED: The Newest Addition to ASA's Boundary
Fitted Modeling Software
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BFSED is a sediment transport model
that simulates the suspended load
transport of cohesive (muddy) and
noncohesive (sandy) sediment. It
tracks these sediments as they erode
from and deposit to the bottom and
travel through the water column.
The model predicts the distribution
and amount of sediment that accumulates
on or erodes from the sediment bed,
as well as simulating sediment concentrations
in the overlying water column. The
model is based on the SEDZL algorithm
that was originated by Kirk Ziegler,
who started developing it at the
University of California, Santa
Barbara during the mid-1980s. He
is now a principal at Quantitative
Environmental Associates, LLC (QEA),
a company with a strong reputation
in sediment transport analyses,
particularly in contaminated sediment
fate modeling and analysis. ASA
and QEA worked together to develop
BFSED and the two firms have agreed
to work jointly on major sediment
transport-related projects that
use BFSED.
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BFSED joins ASA's
other boundary-fitted models: BFHYDRO,
a full hydrodynamic model, BFMASS,
a constituent transport model and
BFWASP, a water quality model based
on the U.S. EPA's WASP model kinetics.
All these models are integrated via
the WQMAP framework, using the same
state-of-the-art model gridding approach.
ASA recently used BFSED to predict
the changes in sediment erosion and
deposition that might occur in a narrow
tidal estuary as a result of highway
bridge reconstruction. Pre- and post-construction
hydrodynamics developed in BFHYDRO
for the estuary were used in BFSED
to simulate sediment erosion and deposition
processes presently occurring, and
to predict how the deposition and
erosion patterns in the estuary will
change after work on the bridge is
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ASA participates
in DeepWater Oil Spill Workshop
ASA is participating in a joint
industry and government project
(JIP) on the modeling of potential
oil well blowouts in deep water.
The program is administered by Dr.
Cortis Cooper, ChevronTexaco, and
receives funding from over twenty
international and national oil companies,
the U.S. Minerals Management Service,
and the Norwegian government. As
part of that effort, ASA has incorporated
the Clarkson deep spill model (CDOG)
and ASA's own deep spill plume model,
OILMAPDEEP into the OILMAP system.
The system allows the user to define
and execute deep and shallow water
blowout simulations and link oil-gas-hydrate
plume formulations, subsurface advection
of oil droplets, and surface advection
and weathering of surface oil. Øistein
Johansen (SINTEF, Trondheim, Norway)
will be contributing his expertise
in particle size distributions predicted
for aerosol oil droplets from high
pressure gas discharges for oil
pipelines.
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Additional model computations of predicted
whole hydrocarbon and dissolved aromatic
concentrations are also available using
ASA's SIMAP system. OILMAPDEEP and OILMAP-CDOG
are available for immediate distribution
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Land Based Oil Spills
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A pipeline ruptures carrying 20,000
barrels of oil per day or a tanker
truck flips and spills 200 barrels
of oil. What paths will the oil
travel and how much area does the
oil cover?
As of September 2004 owners and
operators of pipeline systems are
required to assess and evaluate
potential affects to High Consequence
Areas from segments that leak or
fail for 50% of their pipeline (DOT
OPS 49 CFR 195.452). The High Consequence
Areas are: populated areas, environmentally
sensitive areas, and commercially
navigable waterways. New High Consequence
Areas have been updated and are
to be incorporated by January 2004
(http://ops.dot.gov
for more information).
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ASA's new addition to their extensive
suite of models, OILMAPLAND, assists
in answering these questions. The
model incorporates baseline elevation
data from the USGS digital elevation
model (DEM) and hydrological data
may be utilized to characterize
the transport of the spill and to
determine how the spill terminates.
OILMAPLAND has been written as
an ESRI ArcView extension so the
model may easily be integrated with
existing GIS-based pipeline and
facility data.
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Personnel News
Craig Swanson attended the 83rd
American Meteorological Society Meeting
in Long Beach, CA 10-11 February. He participated
in the Coastal Environments Interactive
Symposium on Developments in Operational
and Research Coastal Oceanography and Meteorology
with an invited presentation Human Resource
Needs for Coastal Oceanography: A Small
Business Perspective. Craig also presented
COASTMAP: A Globally Re-locatable Integrated
Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Modeling System
at the conference co-authored with Malcolm
Spaulding.
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On 12-14 February, Eric Anderson
and Sasha Zigic trained the
Hong Kong Marine Department in the
application of OILMAP and CMSMAP.
The training included integration
of hydrodynamic data from the Hydrographic
Office and testing of the system
by deploying oranges into the harbor
and using the system to track their
movement.
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Matt Ward delivered and provided
training for COASTMAP and WQMAP v4.2 to
the Naval Oceanographic Office at the Stennis
Space Center in Mississippi on 24-28 February.
The data collected by COASTMAP is being
used to develop initial conditions and environmental
forcing for operational coastal models,
such as WQMAP, to support homeland security
activities within US waters and coastal
warfare and environmental response activities
outside of the US.
Sasha Zigic and Eric
Anderson gave a two-day OILMAP
training course to ConocoPhillips
personnel in Beijing. ConocoPhillips
will be applying OILMAP for the
Bohai Sea. Also attending was Control
IT's Nanjing office head, Mr. Canbin
Chen, who assisted with translated
presentations to government and
industry invitees.
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Matt Ward presented COASTMAP
to the Jamestown Yacht Club on 12
March. The focus of the presentation
was to show how COASTMAP and ASA's
forecast model of Narragansett Bay
can be used for pre-race strategic
planning.
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At the invitation of the Centre for Environmental
and Development for the Arab Region (CEDARE),
Roddy Thomas participated in a regional
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and
Advanced Remote Sensing Applications workshop
held in Egypt. In support of a GIS program
for the Regional Organization of the Environment
of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA),
Roddy provided the course participants with
an insight into the uses and application
of pollutant transport model systems, and
their potential integration with GIS. The
course included participants from Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, Aden, Somalia
and Jordon, together with expert staff from
CEDARE and PERSGA.
Matt Ward and Roddy Thomas
conducted a workshop on marine modeling
in support of oil exploration activities
and platform design in Sutton, England on
18 March. The workshop topics included mud
and drill cuttings releases, produced water,
chemical and thermal releases. The participants
included representatives from British Petroleum,
URS Dames and Moore and Haliburton KBR.
On 3-4 April, Deborah French-McCay
and Eric Anderson attended a two
day meeting of the Deep Spill consortium
hosted by NOAA's modeling group in Seattle.
Eric displayed ASA's integration of the
Clarkson University deep water plume model
with ASA's OILMAP and OILMAPDEEP.
Paul Hall attended the Ocean Observing
System Tech Workshop in Portland, ME on
3-4 April. The workshop was sponsored by
a consortium including the Gulf of Maine
Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) and the
Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction
System (Caro-COOPS). The meeting focused
on technical approaches to the in real-time
acquisition and dissemination of oceanographic
data.
Eric Anderson and Deborah
French-McCay attended the Vancouver
IOSC (after a weekend of skiing
at Whistler) the 7-10 April. Deborah
made two presentations: "Modeling
Assessment of Potential Fates and
Exposure for Orimulsion and Heavy
Fuel Oil Spills" by herself
and Nicole Whittier and "Probabilistic
Bio-Economic Modeling of Oil Impacts
in San Francisco Bay" by Deborah,
Jill Rowe, Nicole Whittier, and
Sankar Sankaranarayanan of
ASA, with Dagmar Schmidt Etkin of
Environmental Research Consulting.
Dagmar presented her cost analysis
of spills based on the ASA model
results. Shown here are Gary Ott
from NOAA visiting with Eric at
ASA's booth.
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Malcolm Spaulding
demonstrated COASTMAP at the Marine Technology
Society New England Section April meeting.
Malcolm showed how the globally re-locatable,
real time, marine environmental monitoring
and modeling system can be applied in Narragansett
Bay and southern New England coastal waters.
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Roddy Thomas recently visited
the offices of ERM Iberia in Madrid
to review some of the latest modeling
work completed by ASA in support
of a series of EIA studies being
developed by ERM for oil operators
offshore Spain.
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Deborah French McCay presented "Development
and Application of an Oil Toxicity and Exposure
Model, OILTOXEX" and Nicole Whittier
presented "Spill Hazard Evaluation
for Chemicals Shipped in Bulk Using Modeling"
at the Annual Meeting of the Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
North Atlantic Chapter in Mystic CT on 24
April. These papers relate to our model
development for ecological risk assessments
of oil and chemical spills.
On 25 April, Malcolm Spaulding was
awarded the 2002-2003 Royal Wales Award
at the Fifth Annual College of Engineering
Awards Banquet. Malcolm received the award
for his distinguished service to the University
of Rhode Island, College of Engineering
and the Ocean Engineering department.
Despite being snowed in overnight
in Hungary, Sasha Zigic finally
made it to Atyrau, Kazakhstan for
the 2nd OILMAP training session
for the AGIP KCO staff. Sasha provided
a one day training program covering
the use of OILMAP to address potential
oil spill impacts on the North Caspian
region. The training session was
attended by nine AGIP staff members
from various departments (environmental
engineering, ecology, hse and oil
spill response).
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Claudia Santos Suárez presented
a paper at the Symposium "Scientific
Research as a Strategy to Support Estuarine
and Coastal Management" on 28 April
at the University of Sonora in San Carlos-Sonora,
México. The paper: "SIMAP, an
Oil Spill Modeling Impact Assessment System
application for Pemex" reviewed the
SIMAP significance for Pemex, the National
Oil Company in México.
Upcoming Conferences
On 5-6 May, Eduardo Yassuda will
attend the PETROBRAS Potiguar Basin (Northern
Coast of Brazil) Environmental Monitoring
Workshop. In his presentation, Eduardo will
show the results for the ocean outfall model,
including hydrodynamics and oil-based pollutant
dispersion, using CHEMMAP.
Deborah French McCay and Craig
Swanson will present papers at the Mount
Hope Bay Symposium on 10 May, which is part
of the NEERS/SNECAFS Joint Meeting at the
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Deborah
will present: "Estimated Impacts of
Cormorants on Fish Populations in the Narragansett
Bay Estuary" and Craig will summarize
a large modeling study "Simulated Thermal
Variations in Mount Hope Bay and Application
to Assessing Ecosystem Effects".
Craig Swanson will be presenting
COASTMAP, a Nowcast/Forecast System at the
upcoming Coastal Zone 02 conference in Baltimore
13-17 July. The presentation, coauthored
with Matthew Ward, Eoin Howlett
and Malcolm Spaulding, will describe
how COASTMAP can be an effective tool to
provide environmental monitoring and modeling
information to a variety of user in coastal
areas.
Rafael Bonanata and Marco Antonio
Correa from ASA South America will present
the paper "Development of bathymetric
database for hydrodynamic, sediment transport,
and pollutant dispersion models" in
the upcoming III CBPAS (3rd Brazilian Congress
on Environmental Research).
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