Coastal and Marine Pollution
Geoff Plunkett
Department of Defence
Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2003
ISBN 0 642 29588 3
Although the disposal of material in the sea is now very restricted, historically, the disposal of unwanted waste in the ocean has been a common practice in many parts of the world. Due to its immense size the ocean was thought to have an unlimited absorptive capacity with any dumped waste having only a very localised effect. Moreover, the material would be well away from any human activity. Many items, including boats, chemicals, ammunition, inorganic waste and other hazardous material were dumped in the world's seas. There was often little understanding of the possible dangers to human safety and the ecology of the sea 3. It was not realised the dumping areas would be exploited for their resources in later years. Even for fishing trawlers operating in the early 1970s, a depth over 120 metres was considered as 'very deep water'. Nowadays, however, trawlers near Australia work in depths to 1,500 metres 4 and material dumped in previous decades has been accidentally recovered. This was drawn to the public's attention in 1972/1973 when several drums of industrial waste were recovered by trawlers off Sydney. There were immediate moves to limit sea dumping which culminated in the introduction of the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981. Currently, most permits are only issued for dredge spoil disposal and for the creation of artificial reefs [Plunkett (2003)].
During World War II CWA stocks were held at many sites around Australia. The Japanese had reached as far as Papua New Guinea and had been known to use CWA during warfare. Australia had reserved the right to use CWA to retaliate. The stocks of CWA in Australia were held under General MacArthur's Chemical Warfare plan for the South West Pacific Area (SWPA). Although their use was dependent on the direct order of General MacArthur, the stocks were stored in Australia under either US Army, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australian Army or Navy supervision. None of the CWA munitions were used during combat and at the end of the war the material was in need of elimination [see The Gillis Report and Plunkett (in prep.) 5 for more on the history of CWA in Australia].
This report, using all currently available Federal Government records 6 and other published material, details all knowledge of where and how much CWA has been sea dumped 7 in Australian seas. The report also examines what may have happened to the containers after they were dumped, including the corrosion rate of the cylinders and the breakdown of mustard gas as it reacts with the sea water. It is important to know where any CWA may lie, both to prevent human contact and to assess the possible ecological consequences. Although, in most cases, the amount and types of CWA dumped is not known, inventories are available on CWA stocks supervised by the US forces in Australia. This is important, as evidence suggests most of these stocks were eliminated by sea dumping. The RAAF and Australian Army (after conducting tests) burnt, buried or vented (e.g. phosgene) as well as sea dumped a proportion of their supervised stocks.