When you’re dealing with anything beneath 900 feet of water, nothing is simple. That goes double when that something is a 90-year old crumbling shipwreck, potentially holding millions of gallons of crude oil next to a marine sanctuary.
When the Sun last checked in on the ongoing saga of the S.S. Montebello—the World War II-era oil tanker sunk by Japanese torpedos some six miles off the Cambrian coast—a multi-agency task force had formed with help from state Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo), and was gearing up to find out what threats the vessel poses to the ecologically fragile local coastline.
Today, after years of accumulating questions, that task force has finally been unleashed upon the doomed ship’s wreckage—and it seems there are answers in sight.
On Oct. 3, the task force—comprised of U.S. Coast Guard officers, scientists, researchers, and even politicians—announced it had awarded a $2.2 million contract to the private Seattle-based firm Global Diving & Salvage to send remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) down to the Montebello to find out how much crude oil remains inside, and if the ship’s likely to release it.
What comes next depends on the results of the current mission. But armed with money from a federal trust fund paid for with fees from the oil industry—not taxpayers—the momentum is there, and officials are eager to finally deal with the Montebello once and for all.
Everyone involved agrees the release of three million gallons of crude oil would be devastating to marine life up and down the Central Coast and would decimate a commercial fishing industry, not to mention cause incalculable harm to a local economy driven by tourism dollars.
No significant oil presence or sheen has been reported since the Montebello’s sinking. Though it’s possible some oil escaped the wreckage steadily over the decades, there’s no reason to believe the cargo isn’t still inside the ship’s hull.
Officials do have some idea of the consequences of a Montebello leak, however. Even with the crude’s thickness, it remains more buoyant than water and its release and ascent to warmer surface waters would only facilitate its spread.
Melissa Boggs, a scientist with the California Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), is tasked with determining where that oil would go in a worst-case scenario—what she calls a “chronic release.” Boggs, with the help of $100,000 in OSPR funding and a number of fellow experts, has spent months developing models of potential oil dispersal.
Boggs told the Sun such models have so far suggested a leak could potentially show up on beaches near Cambria. That’s troubling given the wreckage’s proximity to the federally protected sanctuary.
Furthermore, a large enough spill could send oil south to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which relies on saltwater intake to cool its two reactors. It’s unclear how crude oil would affect the plant. Jellyfish alone were enough to force a partial shutdown in 2008, and plant operators with Pacific Gas & Electric have yet to publicly address the issue.
Crews will have a number of issues to contend with, many unprecedented for this kind of a mission, explained Capt. Roger Laferriere, the federal on-site coordinator for the U.S. Coast Guard. Depth, for instance: Lingering at a cool 900 feet, any crude oil aboard is probably the consistency of peanut butter, Laferriere said. How to pump something so thick poses its own dilemma. There are options, including a process known as “hot tapping,” where heated wands are inserted into a drilled hole to warm up the oil globs, as was successfully employed with the sunken Luckenbach.
But the task force has a few technological tricks up its sleeves—the kind not previously available to previous dives and missions. Kerry Walsh, project manager for Global Diving & Salvage, explained that the crew would use a neutron-scattering tool to gauge the thickness of the hull before drilling. A special drilling tool would also be used, Walsh said, to reseal the holes in the tanks as it pulls out. Should the crew detect any leakage following the drilling, a heavy-duty magnetic clamp would be fitted over the drill mark to ensure no oil escapes, Walsh explained.
By the time these words are printed, the risk assessment task force will have a better idea of what it’s dealing with. As of press time, crews had completed their video surveys of the wreckage site and had taken some core samples, according to Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan. The drilling was set to begin in just a few hours.
Staff Writer Matt Fountain can be reached at mfountain@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 20-27, 2011.