From what I understand: The USS Arizona just sank down to the ocean floor immediately after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. It’s still got a debatable (but probably large) quantity of oil in it. It’s leaking said oil, and as boats do, it’s deteriorating.
How much oil is in it, still? I haven’t been able to find anything saying exactly how much oil there is, which leads me to believe it’s not known. Why can’t the Navy just take a look at the records from early December, 1941, and at least get a decent estimate?
For that matter, why was the wreckage allowed to just stay where it was in the first place? Wouldn’t moving it out of the way before a few decades of corrosion took their toll have been a better idea?
It’s a war grave, and therefore is not to be disturbed.
As far as the oil goes, Pearl Harbor is pollution central. There have been hundreds of ships for a hundred years. It’s anything but clean. The leakage from the Arizona isn’t even a drop in the bucket.
"The fuel bunkers … still contain an estimated 500,000 gallons of No. 6 oil … At the moment, the Arizona releases a quart or two of oil a day – drop by rising drop – from a dozen or so leaks. Eventually, scientists say, the Arizona is likely to spring a serious leak, but it probably won’t happen soon.
But by extracting core samples from different sections of the ship, by taking precise measurements via Global Positioning Satellite technology and chemically analyzing oil leaking from the Arizona, park service scientists and others have cobbled together a high-tech picture of the state of the Arizona.
“If our research is correct, there are decades, if not centuries, before major structural collapse becomes likely,” Russell said. “There’s no urgency to move forward, to remove the oil or alter the state of the ship.”
So, random question, if they should one day decide that the Arizona was in imminent risk of a major hull breach dumping it’s oil out into the water, how difficult would it be to drop some sort of barrier around the ship to contain the oil spill? Since oil floats, it could be a floating barrier rather than an actual wall (of course, this depends on how much oil comes out).
Then again, if all 500,000 gallons of oil comes out in one big blob tommorow, what difference does that make in terms of ecology and Pearl Harbor’s naval operations?
The fuel bunkers are most likely compartmentalized in several different bunkers ,rather than one big tank, so I am not sure half a mil gallons will come out all at once.
Salvage of oil from sunken vessels at much much greater depths have been effected.
I think when the time comes when something has to be done, what will be done is fairly non-intrusive drilling into bunker tanks around the vessel and the oil will be sucked out.
What can be done by modern salvage efforts is simply astonishing. Working at the shallow depth of the Arizona would be a child’s play.
Munitions in the area might make it harder, but I’m guessing they’d generally be away from bunker tanks.
Veterans may also conceivably raise a stink, but I think that the process could be done inobrtrusively, and if the alternative is having the memorial covered in bunkers, they won’t.
Specifically, it is a United States National Cemetery, and the only one located entirely underwater, according to the Parks Department guide I ask this of some years ago.
Not all oil will float. Some heavier oils with either float, be suspended or sink. No. 6 oil is one of those heavy oils that may sink depending on the specific gravity. Clean up of these oils are obviously a bit more difficult.
Thanks for the link but now I am really confused. Since the Arizona is a memoral/United States National Cemetery how did Capt. Kirkpatrick’s son get his personal belongings from the ship? I would imagine that would be very disruptive to the site.
a certain amount of salvage work was done on the ship immediately after Dec 7th, initially to remove some of the guns and ammunition for reissue (though turret no.1 was left intact), cut off the superstructure and remove easily accessible corpses. The divers were also directed to remove safes containing payrolls from some of the ships. They also found some .45 automatics from the Arizona’s armory and removed them for their own purposes, an action which later came back to bite them. At the time it was just another wreck and no special thought was given to preserving it as a memorial. Work on the ship eventually ceased as it was beyond economic salvage and the divers were needed on other tasks. See Cmdr. Edward C Raymer, Descent Into Darkness (1996)
The Department of Veterans Affiars says otherwise. I can’t find anything indicating that the wreck itself has any special legal standing: the memorial itself is run by the National Park Service, but I can’t find anything about the actual ship. Presumably it’s still considered property of the US Navy.