Environment

31 chemical containers go overboard off Australia

by Amy Judd | March 11, 2009 at 03:19 pm

234 views | 45 Recommendations | 8 comments

A ship hit by a tropical cycone today off the coast of Australia lost 31 containers off the side and they could be now leaking chemicals into the ocean. The containters were holding ammonium nitrate, which is a toxic chemical used for making fertilizer and explosives, and environmentalists are concerned that this leaking into the oceans could affect algae blooms and other marine life.

One container also pierced the hull, causing some fuel to leak in to the water as well.

"The ship had about 60 containers onboard that contained ammonium nitrate, they were all on deck. Reports are that we have lost about 31 of them," said Captain John Watkinson, general manager of Maritime Safety Queensland.

"We've spoken to the ship's captain and he was a bit anxious with his condition out there, with the sea, which has been whipped up by Cyclone Hamish. It's a pretty nasty situation."

Aircraft are searching for the containers, which may have sunk by now. Three tons of the chemical have already spilled on to the deck of the ship.

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Maireid Sullivan

at 16:08 on March 11th, 2009

This is a shocking story, Amy, thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Art_By_Alida

at 19:24 on March 11th, 2009

They also use that chemical in the illegal manufacture of the drug, Meth.

I hope the marine life isn't affected very much.

Any chemists out there???? I wonder what happens when that chemical comes in contact with salt water?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Paschen

at 20:45 on March 11th, 2009

How lovely. I am sure the whales will enjoy it. Where is the Sea Shepherd now?

Anon-and-on (not verified)

at 01:53 on March 12th, 2009

Mr. Paschen, The Sea Shepherd can't police all the oceans, its just not big enough nor do they have enough ships, especially with one illegally detained and sold by the Canadian government for trying to bring attention to the mass slaughter of seals, nor who they have enough volunteers.

After quite a successful season against the Japanese whalers, the Steve Irwin returned to its port in Hobart. But they need bigger and faster ships to keep up with the whalers which each year are also getting bigger and faster.

Thank you for your interest in the Sea Shepherd, you can learn and read more by visiting the web site "The Sea Shepherd."

kuuva

at 23:53 on March 11th, 2009

at first i was thinking 31 fifty five gallon drums, no big deal. but then I saw it was 31 shipping containers. according to the link lost containers it estimated each container carries 20tons of the ammonium nitrate. That is greater than 600 tons.

it looks like the immediate risk is the oil spill. The containers appear to have sank.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/12/2514496.htm?section=justin

Obviously they should try to recover them. If there is strong ocean currents it may be okay since the dilution will be high. But otherwise there would be risk of algae blooms, as mentioned in the reuters article.

joelpietersen

at 08:09 on April 17th, 2009

Isn't there something that can be implemented into the design of these containers to protect against this kind of thing?

kuuva

at 00:36 on March 12th, 2009

okay i was looking up some info. I am thinking there is no way they will recover the containers. It looks like Ammonium nitrate is going for about $450/ton on the market. Meaning the total loss would be less than $300k. I know that does not include environmental damage but I bet they will give that a low number. Unless this is in the bay where the ocean currents are low. In the end they will put a number ($) on it and make the decision from there.

To show typical usage rates, I was reading for corn will be 100-125lbs per acre.

I found a good report showing the worldwide usage rate of ammonium nitrate at 15 million tons.

http://www.sriconsulting.com/CEH/Public/Reports/756.9000/

Anon-and-on (not verified)

at 01:58 on March 12th, 2009

at this moment a ship is rounding Cape Town bound for Japan, carrying 1,800 kg of deadly plutonium. This very lethal cocktail is enough to make 225 nuclear bombs 100x bigger than what was dropped on Japan.

What would happen if this ship sank? I guess the whales would start glowing in the dark? Pink and Green!