How Hitler's U-Boats Are Still Attacking USA

Oil & Natural Gas / Oil Shale / Related Environmental Issues / Environmental Impact

Date posted: 11/19/14

Julia Whitty reports that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has some fresh news from World War II. 13 Merchant Marine ships sunk by the German Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic threaten to release oil from their watery graves. The finding comes in an assessment presented to the Coast Guard that analyzed 20,000 shipwrecks in US waters, and identified 36 as posing a significant threat of oil pollution. Seventeen of those are recommended for further assessment, which could lead to missions to remove their fuel oil and oil cargo. Besides the Merchant Marine vessels, the worrisome ships include a barge lost in bad weather in 1936, two ships sunk in separate collisions in 1947 and 1952, and a tanker that exploded in 1984.But, many of the 20,000 wrecks identified in US waters date to before 1891, when US shipping began switching to fuel oil. Most of these earlier wrecks from the age of coal and sail pose little or no environmental threat.