GOM LNG: Fall River Mass asks USCG to set out burn & kill radius distances around LNG tankers

Gulf of Maine LNG Update November 27, 2004 As NIMBAY activists (Not In My BAY) keep punting the LNG port wannabes from shores after shore from Sipayik to Cape Cod, the luckless LNG- port-threatened riverside city of Fall River, Massachusetts has petitioned the US Coasties to delineate high-burn-risk zones around LNG tankers moving in federal and state waters and at port, that correspond with the no go's already in place for land-based LNG spills. I.e. "thermal exclusion zones", and "vapor dispersal zones." The whole 22 page petition, and related info is now online
Mustn't toast the citizens. The crux of the Fall Riverian petition to the Us Coast Guard for Rulechanging is that two sentences be added to the federal LNG regulations
"Section 127.115 Every vessel carrying LNG, whether in transit or while moored at a waterfront facility handling LNG, must maintain a thermal exclusion zone for marine spills of LNG as required under 49 C.F.R. s. 193.2057 for spills of LNG on land."

"Section 127.1 17 Every vessel carrying LNG, whether in transit or while moored at a waterfront facility handling LNG, must maintain a vapor dispersion exclusion zone for marine spills of LNG as required under 49 C.F.R. s. 193.2059 for spills of LNG on land."

Not a bad idea; who wants to get broiled en passent?

Invader Update

This morning, put out an update request out to the Gulf of Maine's researchers investigating the movements of invader shorecrab Hemigrapsus sanguineus. With summer's end, the researchers are wrapping up their hunts across the region's intertidal zone for the little crustacean invader, newest arthropod from away to try to colonize the Gulf of Maine's shores.

The response (caveated with the usual cautions of scientists handling raw data) is that it appears that "[N]umbers in southern Maine have slightly increased, but Hemi has not spread further east, and the furthest east collection site is still Isle au Haut. We came up empty in eastern Penobscot Bay, around MDI, and in Washington County."

Ha! The little buggers' eastward movement seem to be stymied.
Last year's crab-watch found them the the shores of Isle au Haute; in 2001 and 2002, Asian Shore Crabs (ASC's) were captured on Crescent Beach in Owls Head.
What with their alleged predatory habits towards juvenile lobsters, ASCs may end up changing the 60 million dollar/year crustacean economy of west Penobscot Bay.