Anti-flotsam measures in US

July 7, 2012

4 U.S. states set up emergency funds to handle debris from Japan quake and tsunami

Local residents look at a dock from Misawa fishing port in Aomori Prefecture that washed up on Agate Beach in Newport, Oregon, on June 26. (Mainichi)

拡大写真

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120707p2a00m0na011000c.html

LOS ANGELES, California -- Of the five U.S. states and one Canadian province that face the prospect of more rubble from last year's Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami arriving on their shores, four have allocated emergency funds or are in the process of doing so, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned.

While debris has already begun to wash up on North American shores, the volume is expected to surge starting this fall, bringing with it concerns regarding disposal and impact on local ecosystems.

According to the Japanese government, up to 1.5 million metric tons of debris was washed away by tsunami generated by a massive earthquake that struck off the coast of northeastern Japan last March. Large-scale rubble has been found on the Pacific coast of Canada and the U.S. since April of this year; on April 6, the U.S. Coast Guard opened fire and sank a Japanese squid trawler off the coast of Alaska, and on June 5, a 20-meter-long dock from the Misawa fishing port in Aomori Prefecture washed up on a beach in Oregon.

The Mainichi Shimbun obtained information in writing and through phone interviews from the U.S. states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii, as well as from the Canadian province of British Columbia, regarding funds allocated for handling debris from the tsunami, as well as future budget considerations and other measures.

After a boat washed up onshore in Washington State on June 15, the state government set aside an emergency budget of $600,000 and spent some 20,000 dollars on fact-finding investigations.

Meanwhile, Oregon raised its budget for anti-flotsam measures by $50,000 from the previous year to $135,000 and has spent approximately $90,000 on dealing with the dock from Aomori Prefecture. Alaska budgeted $200,000 for fact-finding investigations slated for August, and California, which has yet to find any large debris on its shores, is poised to allocate $30,000 to its fiscal 2013 budget for the "minimum required for coastal cleanup."

Although the U.S. and Japanese governments have begun talks on dealing with the issue collaboratively, no international laws exist on the disposal of floating debris, and in the past, governments with jurisdiction over the shores where flotsam was found have customarily dealt with their disposal. With some 40,000 tons of rubble expected to drift onto North American shores between this coming fall and the new year, the aforementioned states and province set up a joint information center in March of this year. While the state and provincial governments intend to continue returning memorabilia and other personal items to their owners when possible, most of the rubble will likely face disposal, and they have turned to federal authorities for assistance.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has set aside $618,000 for anti-rubble measures, part of which is being used to predict floating patterns of the debris. However, fact-finding surveys have been left up to individual state governments, and it remains unclear how much the processing and disposal will cost overall.