Posted on 12/07/2001 5:26:24 AM PST by southernnorthcarolina
On the 60th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that drew America into World War II, blobs of Bunker C Crude oil still leak - likely more than a quart a day - from the Arizona's loose or corroding hatches and bulkheads.
The oil has created a debate over what to do with the shipwreck. A microbiologist from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston is helping the National Park Service answer this delicate question: Could the oil be so damaging to the harbor that it justifies disturbing the site, for 60 years an underwater tomb?
"If nothing is done to preserve it, the ship will eventually disintegrate and there is a chance of a major spill down the line. But it's almost impossible to predict when," said Dr. Pam Morris. "I understand both sides of the argument, but I think the remaining vets have more of a right to decide what to do with the Arizona than I do. It is such an emotional place held in great reverence."
To the survivors of that attack, most now in their 80s, the oil represents the blood, or tears, from the 948 sailors and Marines entombed in the disintegrating wreckage under 40 feet of water.
"They figure that after the last Arizona survivor dies, the oil will stop," said Don Boyer, a spokesman for the USS Arizona Memorial, the bridgelike icon on pilings completed in 1962 that straddles the beam of what remains of the ship's hull. "We'll soon be able to test that theory - there are 53 left."
Today, many survivors of Dec. 7, 1941, are making their final pilgrimage to the place from their youth that still defines their old age. The Arizona remains a constant symbol of Pearl Harbor.
The service aboard the Arizona Memorial begins at 7:50 a.m. (12:50 p.m. EST). President Bush will mark the anniversary with a speech aboard an aircraft carrier in Norfolk, Va.
Some people think measures should be taken to keep the shipwreck from disintegrating so future generations won't forget how America was thoroughly blind-sided. If that doesn't happen, they say the oil should be removed to prevent a major ecological disaster once the wreck collapses. But to do either would mean tampering with what many of the remaining 7,000 Pearl Harbor survivors regard as sacred ground.
"To see that slick of oil, to see it form like a rainbow, you get tears," said Leo Sienkiewicz of Pfafftown, near Winston-Salem, the chairman of the N.C. chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. "I don't care if the oil messes up the harbor - they can clean it up. That wreck down there is a living memorial to Dec.7. It's like a shrine, and we shouldn't be messing with it. We should let it die on its own."
Knowing that most Pearl Harbor survivors feel likewise, the park service is undertaking a comprehensive study of the site.
Morris spent 10 days last year examining samples of water and the fine silt that covers much of the hull. Additional samples were collected by divers this week and sent to Charleston as Morris tries to determine whether microorganisms are feeding off the oil and degrading it or speeding the wreck's corrosion.
"There are microorganisms that use as a source of energy carbon food compounds that are found in crude oil," Morris said. "As a result, the hope is that they could be breaking down something that is toxic to something that is not. We want to see if there are any changes in the profile of the oil."
No one knows how much oil remains in 100 separate bunkers, though there have been estimates of up to 500,000 gallons.
The Arizona, commissioned in 1917, had just been refueled. On Dec. 7, 1941, it was among seven of the Pacific Fleet's nine battleships tied up along Battleship Row on the southeast shore of Ford Island. The attack began shortly before 7:55 a.m. About 15 minutes later, 8:10, a 1,760-pound armor-piercing shell slammed through the Arizona's deck, igniting 1 million pounds of powder in the forward ammunition magazine.
The ship sank in less than nine minutes. Only 337 crew members survived - most of those on shore when the attack began. Of the 1,177 crew members who went down with the ship, 229 bodies were recovered before the Navy declared the others buried at sea.
The wreck burned for three days. "Since the ship's logs went down with it, we don't know how much oil it had when it sank, and we don't know how much of it burned off," Boyer said.
Morris believes a considerable load remains. At the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the park service reported that the oil wouldn't be depleted for another 50 years.
The oil, heavy and viscous, was used to power the ship's boilers. "Because it is heavy it is less water-soluble," Morris said. "And it tends to be less biodegradable and microorganisms would have more trouble degrading it."
Pearl Harbor's prevailing trade winds, she said, offer some protection by pushing oil out to sea.
Metal experts also are studying the thickness of the remaining steel. The park service won't decide what to do until the study is done probably in two years.
As a scientist, Morris prefers to stay out of the debate, sticking instead to her analysis of what the oil is doing to a harbor that already has seen many discharges since its time as a Navy base.
Still, she couldn't help but be stirred by the memorial and the wreckage that can be seen below.
"It's such a beautiful setting that it's hard to imagine what that day was like," Morris said. "It's a powerful place."
The site is held in such reverence by survivors that Navy divers today will inter in stainless steel boxes the ashes of two Arizona survivors. In all, 19 survivors have had their ashes placed on the barbette of the number 4 turret.
Buck Wiley understands. He was on leave in Honolulu when the attack awakened him.
He planned to be at Pearl Harbor today with his family, but an illness kept them from going.
"I've been there and sat there and watched the oil bubbles come up," he said. "It's nothing; they can control it."
When some gaze upon the resting place of the Arizona, some see a momentous event which changed the course of history; some see courage and valour; and some see... an oil slick. This is the kind of attitude we've come to expect from the ever-petty, increasingly irrelevant Observer.
NEVER FORGET!
These environmentalists are real ninnies.
EXCUSE ME!? It's well documented we knew the attack was coming.
Balls...... breakin' 'em.
Stuff does not rust underwater. What kind of crap is this.
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