I have by chance and a little surfing run into two things, one good and one bad. The good part is the discovery of a catch-all website called ScienceBlogs that links to many blogs and discussions about science. Some of the topics are Biology, Brain & Behavior, Culture Wars, Medicine, Physical Science, Planet Earth and Policy & Politics. One could get lost on this site for hours upon hours, so watch out! The bad news is that the the news in these blogs is not always good, and the item that led me there was a report from Deep Sea News called Munitions Dumped at Sea, outlining an international program for dumping munitions off US and foreign shores. Federal lawmakers are pressing to know more about these toxic wastes and where they have been dumped. Learn more about it by going to the article in Deep Sea News.
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Writer, editor, photojournalist, cartoonist, Beverly Spicer is the E-Bits columnst at The Digital Journalist, a video and photojournalism webzine at http://digitaljournalist. org. She is a diarist and author of two books. Her undergraduate degree is in physiological psychology and biological sciences, and she has a interdisciplinary Master of Science in architectural studies combining architecture, neuroscience, and Middle Eastern studies. .
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Come discuss the Gobal Concerns from Sea Dumped Chemical and Conventional Munitions with the leading world’s experts Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, World Trade and Convention Centre, 9 - 11 October 2007, Guest Speaker Robert F. Kennedy, for more information contact Terry Long at tplong@eastlink.ca
Come to the Conference http://www.seadumpedmunitions.com
What a disturbing article. Is there any way to find out other dump sites other than the US coast?
Beverly, I honestly think you should post the saddest thing of all from that article … the picture of the dolphin apparently burned by mustard gas dumped into the sea.
Truly criminal.
Thank you for this important information.
The mustard gas dumped in the sea is not bad, and it certainly is not news. Hazardous material such as this has commonly dumped into specified (on maritime charts) locations. If they eventually leak, they are so diluted by the ocean, they cannot be detected.
There are three US and over four Russian nuclear powerr plants now on the ocean bottom, abandoned. They have been monitored for years; the ocean water has not been affected.
What would you do with all the German nerve gas? The gas Iraq used on their people? Old mustard gas?
George Curtis, UH
Wanted to mention something, and also correct George. What he is referring to are nuclear reactors that were on naval vessels which have been sunk at sea and abandoned (very different than “power plants”). There is a bit of material on this online if you are curious. [note- there are also what the military refers to as Broken Arrow incidents- this is where they actually loose a nuclear weapon, or accidentally discharge one. Some of these have happened at sea, so these warheads also in our oceans unretrieved]
Another big issue was that the US Military used to dump quite a few metric tonnes in barrels of nuclear waste (some high level such as spent fuel rods) off of the coast of California near San Diego (on purpose! -it was an accepted method of disposal of radioactive material in those days). These rusty barrels have been leaking for decades since during the earlier days of the Cold War (1950s and 60’s), and the US Gov’t is hardly doing anything about remediating the problem. You hardly ever hear about it, and I believe the last time I even heard it brought up was a quick mention in a Cousteau programme on PBS.
Some Google searches will probably bring up a bunch on the whole issue of nuke trash at sea. Stuff with a half-life of hundreds, thousands, or millions of years is pretty bad news!