The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) is to serve as the trustee for the nation’s system of marine protected areas, to conserve, protect, and enhance their biodiversity, ecological integrity, and cultural legacy. A century of ocean dumping has left the world with a forgotten legacy of chemical and conventional weapons, nuclear waste dumpsites, shipwrecks, abandoned pipelines, and wellheads found in all ocean waters, including those of the National Marine Sanctuary System. The ONMS created the Resources and Undersea Threats (RUST) database to catalogue potential threats, including shipwrecks, munitions dumpsites, radiological waste dumpsites, abandoned pipelines, and wellheads. RUST data are composed of and synthesized from numerous databases and thousands of document files that cover the U.S. coastline out to the outer continental shelf; however, initial database population has primarily focused on the NMS System. These data sources combine to create a single, all-inclusive entry for each submerged site that includes but is not limited to positioning, site type (i.e., vessel or munitions dumpsite), ship/container typology, cargo, type and estimated amount of hazardous material remaining (e.g., oil, diesel fuel, mustard gas), and inherent risks associated with the site. Taking a proactive instead of a reactive approach to mitigating this risk will reduce response costs and diminish the threat of environmental and socioeconomic damages.

The National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed the Resources and Undersea Threats (RUST) database in an attempt to inventory and assess potential threats from underwater sources of pollution. Undersea threat information is only the first step of several in determining the potential scope and scale of the spill trajectories that demonstrate potential to impact sensitive resources. Resource managers frequently have to make decisions based on the precautionary approach, using the best available information to weigh alternatives without knowing for certain whether they are making the right choice. In contrast, pollution responders are generally reactionary, and response alternatives must be generated with the best available information.The Office of Response and Restoration, Hazardous Materials Response Division (HAZMAT) has developed a spill response and planning application, Trajectory Analysis Planner (TAP), which randomly samples seasonal climatology and runs hundreds of possible trajectories. These trajectories are combined to form several modes that display various types of ocean analysis. Combining TAP modeling with the Resources and Undersea Threats database could provide marine resource managers with critical information for making planning decisions, as well as for developing preparedness and response options for inclusion in coastal Area Contingency Plans.

An evaluation was made of the amounts and types of oil potentially released from sunken vessels in U.S. waters, where oil would be transported, how rapidly it would reach sensitive resources, and magnitudes of impacts on surface water and shorelines. Oil spill modeling was performed as part of a screening analysis to identify those sunken vessels of highest risk for environmental and socioeconomic impacts, with the expectation that those identified will be subject to more detailed analysis. The modeling provides estimates of the locations of oiling, as well as areas of water surface, lengths of shoreline, and volumes of water exposed above potential effects thresholds (oil thickness or concentrations). We developed regression models of the resulting indices of oil impacts as a function of spill volume, allowing for predictions of water surface area, shoreline extent, and water volume affected for any potential (partial or entire) release volume from the sunken vessel. We ran RPS-ASA's SIMAP model in probabilistic mode, i.e., long-term wind and current records were sampled at random and model runs performed for each of 200 selected spill dates and times. The model results provide a statistical description of the probabilities and potential locations and magnitudes of oil-related impacts. This consequence analysis may be used to assign priorities for potential salvage of sunken vessels based on relative risk. The resultant analysis may be used by decision-makers to evaluate response needs, such as response equipment capacities, timing of deployment required to protect sensitive resources, and possible time windows and areas for dispersant use.

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