Jodrey Oil Project

Rebreather Divers Tackle the Jodrey Oil Project
A Blending of Commercial and Technical Diving Methods and Techniques

By Ken Koga –Moriuchi IANTD #3626 and Andrew Driver IANTD ITT #68
Contributions from Manny Stephens UMHS Chamber Technician/PADI 184122
Edited Version Presented in IANTD Nitrox Diver 2005



Date November 20, 1974
Time 21:00 Temperature 35 F? (1.6 C?)
Wind 10-15 mph. (1-24 km) Visibility 3-5 miles. (5-8 km) Typical conditions on the St. Lawrence Seaway
Latitude 44.32869874401131 Longitude -75.93651294708252

Time 21:40. Navigation light #194 spotted on Wellesley Island. Orders Hard left rudder.

The ore freighter Roy A. Jodrey drifts from the shipping channel towards the rocky ledges of the Pullman Shoals. Three hard bumps are felt. The Jodrey lists towards her starboard side. Cold water rushes in. The crew starts her pumps. The area forward of the ballast tank takes on massive amounts of water. The captain decides to ground her against an underwater shoal. It’s a last ditch effort.

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Date November 21, 1974 Time 03:00.

The Jodrey slips beneath the surface despite the crew and Coast Guards’ best efforts. Once destined for Detroit, the pride of the Algoma line now rests under the cool, green waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway. She sits twisted against a rocky gorge and sideways towards the outer edge of a busy shipping lane. Resting at a depth of 140’ to 250’ she is declared irrecoverable in February 1975.


Shortly thereafter, the immense hulk of the Jodrey becomes a favorite dive spot. The advent of technical diving brings new legions of mixed gas divers to this submerged treasure. She’s a terrific site to dive, but reveals a dark side – she slowly trickles fuel oil into the pristine waters of the St. Lawrence.

Oil

The leaking oil initiates a remediation effort overseen by the NY State DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation), US Coast Guard & local government. Several commercial diving firms are contracted over a span of decades to resolve this problem. These highly expensive barge operated outfits perform series of tethered dives to remove intact sources of contaminants from the freighter. Though successful at removing contained sources of pollutant (barrels), these time-consuming tether restricted efforts don’t resolve the issue of the mysterious leaking oil droplets. Rainbow colored splotches of oil are routinely observed in the vicinity of the wreck.

As oil sightings increase, the Coast Guard and NY State DEP shuts down diver access to the Jodrey. In 2002, Khris Hunt of Hunt Diving Specialties (Watertown, NY) and Andrew Driver of Mad Dog Expeditions (Manhattan, NY-IANTD) are contracted to tackle this problem. The project leaders formulate a unique plan to solve this problem – Find the source of the leak by using free-swimming rebreather divers to survey and penetrate her hulk.

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The Challenges

The Jodrey Oil Project presented the team with a unique set of physical and logistical challenges:

• Conducting safe, free swimming dive operations within commercial diving/insurance guidelines*
• Locating and penetrating the engine compartment of a 640’ long vessel lying at a depth of 140’-250’.
• Launching dive operations in the middle of an active shipping lane
• Evacuating oil from the interior of the Jodrey**
• Maintaining safety protocols at all times for untethered divers
• Providing on-site recompression support for dive team

* Allowances from typical commercial diving guidelines were made. These allowances were a practical consideration given the extreme and difficult nature trying to conduct a tethered dive operation inside an enclosed and partially collapsing engine room.

** Typical current speed ranged from 2-5 knots. Flow speed was dependent upon the opening/closing of Seaway locks.

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Planning

To accomplish stated objectives Hunt Diving Specialties and Mad Dog Expeditions initiated a three phase plan:

• Phase One - Survey the site. Conduct small scale mop up and recover contaminants for analysis.
• Phase Two - Pinpoint pollution source(s). Penetrate engine room and conduct interior survey.
• Phase Three - Penetrate engine room, locate port day tank, open fuel line manifolds, run an evacuation line into engine room to suction remaining fuel oil to shore.

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Personnel, Technology and Tools

Personnel (Phase Two and Three)

• Andrew Diver - Project Director, Mad Dog Expeditions; IANTD Rebreather Instructor Trainer; Lead Mixed Gas Rebreather Diver
• Khris Hunt - Project Director, Hunt Underwater Specialties; Commercial Dive Coordinator
• Mark Luzader - IANTD Rebreather Instructor; Dive Equipment Technician; Mixed Gas Blender
• Pete Wollheben - IANTD Mixed Gas Rebreather Diver; Lead Wreck Diver of the dive vessel – Seeker (New Jersey)

• Emanuel Stephens - PADI Specialty Instructor; Paramedic and Recompression Chamber Technician -International Board of Undersea Medicine (IBUM); Hyperbaric Chamber Technician/ EMT
• Ken Koga-Moriuchi - IANTD Rebreather and Technical Diving Instructor; Professional Videographer; Project Safety Diver
• Todd R. Smith - IANTD Technical Instructor Trainer; Mixed Gas Rebreather Diver
• Alan Moyer - IANTD Instructor; Mixed Gas Rebreather Diver
• Bill Weinpahl – IANTD OC Trimix Diver; Professional Videographer
• Chris Bidwell - Boat Operator; Commercial Diver / Tender
• Dave Thorn - Boat Operator; Commercial Diver / Tender

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The Technology (Phase Three)

All divers used mixed gas rebreathers. Typical units were modified Inspiration rebreathers kitted with Juergensen Hammerhead units. Project Director Andrew Driver used a hybrid Megalodon unit, fitted with a CIS-Lunar hydrophobic scrubber, Juergensen electronics and Inspiration counterlungs. All divers wore a standard 40-cu3 bailout bottles of 20/40 and 50/50. The diluent mixture was heliair 10/50. Reels, argon suit inflation, redundant cutting devices and lights were typical.

Tools

• DPV’s – Gavin and Silent Submersion Short and Long Body scooters
• Tools – Assorted wrenches and hammers
• Suction System – Shore based compressor driven unit powered by an industrial tanker trailer combination
• Video –3 Chip Cameras and HID Lights
• Recompression Chamber – 54” duo-lock, multi-place, commercial chamber

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Phase One

Project directors Andrew Driver and Khris Hunt sends teams of skilled rebreather and OC divers to the stern section of the Jodrey (150’) to survey the site, catalog, videotape, collect samples, conduct small scale mop up and pinpoint probable leakage points. During these surveys pools of accumulated oil are found trapped under various sections of the stern. See photo:


Lab results confirm the pollutant as # 4 crude. Luckily, PCB’s* (polychlorinated biphenols) are not present in these samples. “Diapers” / oil absorbent pads are used to remove approximately 50 gallons of oil.

*Oil in the St. Lawrence River posed a distinct health issue*. Water from the Seaway is routinely used as a source of drinking water. One quart of oil will foul approximately 150,000 - 250,000 gallons of water. Air & Waste Management Association. 2000

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Phase Two

The goals are to locate an entrance to the port side engine room and pinpoint pollutant egress(es) – the port side day tank. This is a difficult task. Swift water makes surveying difficult and necessitated the use of deepwater scooters (Gavins) and closed circuit rebreather diving. Divers are often required to use a grab and pull technique on the surface of the hull as current often overpowered finning and scooter-assisted swimming. Being swept off the wreck carried the hazardous potential of having to conduct staged decompression in a channel crossed by ore carriers and tankers. During these dives the moans of twisting metal are heard as the Jodrey slowly succumbs to the ravages of time and nature. Andrew Driver and Mark Luzader locate the port engine room and run guidelines inside the engine room. See illustration:


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Phase Three – The Big Job!

Objectives

The tasks are to remove the hatch cover from the day fuel tank, open engine room fuel manifolds and run suction hose from the tank to the pumping station on shore. This phase involved considerable collaborative planning, outfitting and coordination. The complete physical execution of Phase Three plans took two weeks of water work.

Safety Recompression and Communications

In order to ensure the safety of the divers a duo-place hyperbaric chamber was used. Manny Stephens (UMHS chamber technician/PADI #184122) and Andrew Driver were chamber operators. Having on-site medical care and recompression services were key elements of the safety plan. Here’s an entry from Manny’s hyperbaric log:

"As the on site hyperbaric technician/ medical support, I maintained the chamber and the divers' logs for their 'extended safety stops'. I also maintained the medical equipment in case of a problem (airways, IV's, expanded first aid and trauma).

I monitored their dive times and adjusted chambers depths and times accordingly to avoid 'running up their 02 exposure clock along with avoiding a traumatic change of one inert gas (helium) with another (nitrogen). This is due to the strong possibility of the gases taking up the same tissue compartment, thus, increasing the risk of 'bubble trouble'.

Manny Stephens inside the chamber

The 'safety stops' ranged from 40’-60’ fsw in depth while they were breathing 100% oxygen. The bottom times ranged from 20-40 minutes, with appropriate air breaks to slowly and safely reintroduce a safe nitrogen level to the body. Ultimately, the combination of the added O2 at depth with aggressive hydration protocols (i.e. Gator/Powerade for mineral/sugar balance), allowed for a healthy fluid/gas exchange."

Diver Communications

Consisted of float-operated signals relayed on down and staged decompressions lines. Emergency divers on board a boat were on standby at all times. Penetration divers adhered to a pre-determined time schedule inside the wreck. Typical run times were 30 - 45 minutes at the engine room work site and 60 – 90 minutes for staged decompression via a line attached from stern of the Jodrey to shore. Deviations from the work schedule would initiate immediate safety operations.


All penetration dives were conducted within stated time frames and no emergency dive operations were necessary. Scrubbers and breathing gases were changed and charged daily. Sodasorb and Sofnolime (fine grade) were the scrubbers of choice.

Typical Dive
Pre-Penetration

A typical day of diving involved sending two man teams to the Jodrey twice a day. Divers were deployed from a landing craft both in the morning and afternoon. The landing craft was launched from the adjacent USCG station on Wellesley Island and moored to a temporary down line attached to the stern of the Jodrey (150’). This temporary down line sat directly in the middle of a shipping lane! Divers were rapidly sent into the water pending channel clearance by the US Coast Guard. Typical current speed on the down line ranged from 2 to an arm busting 5 knots. Temperature was a consistent 68 F? through all layers. At the stern stationary system & buddy checks were conducted prior to swimming to the twisted penetration entrance.

Penetration

The penetration of the port side engine room involved a series of twists and turns through restrictions and silt filled corridors. Multiple strobes and bailout bottles were placed along strategic points of the route. Pull and glide, as well as considerable “body English” was employed through much of the passageway. Entanglement, jagged metal, extreme silt out and disorientation were hazards of the route. The total length of the zigzag penetration was approximately 150’-200’ linear feet*. Visibility inside the work area was surprisingly good! This clarity was due to the starboard list of the Jodrey that had deposited a majority of the silt at the lowest portions of the engine room.


The work site terminated at a large water separation tank. The day hatch was adjacent to the boiler tank. Removing the hatch cover proved no easy task. The starboard list of the Jodrey made it impossible to stand upright in the corridor. Team members had to float at odd angles while twisting and pounding away with long handled wrenches and hammers. Pneumatic tools were not used, as they were logistically more problematic than helpful. Unbolting the hatch took several days. See picture:

*The project principals had visited an intact sister ship and performed a series of dry walk-throughs to familiarize themselves with the interior of the ship

Oil Evacuation

During the early excursions a fortuitous crack in the port hull was discovered. This crack on the high current side of the Jodrey was closer to day tank cover and allowed a shorter placement of the suction hose. The alternative would have been to run hose through the silt and circuitous diver route. This latter situation would have been problematic*. Once the day tank hatch cover was removed the final steps of the evacuation process could be conducted. This involved running 800 ft. of rubber suction hose from shore to the underwater work site.

*Running hundreds feet of thick, memory bound rubber hose through a twisting, silt filled corridor would have been another major technical challenge!

Routing the memory bound hose through swift water proved challenging. Considerable muscle power, ingenuity and the placement of a stainless steel guideline allowed the team to route the hose into the day tank. Once the hose was installed, the hatch was opened and pumping operations began.

Results

During the first evacuations only minor quantities of oil were removed. Further pumping efforts removed more oil, however not in as great a quantity as expected*. Interior fuel manifolds were opened with the hope of moving oil from point to point (starboard to port side). This action did not yield much beyond our first evacuation efforts. After several more pumping sessions it was concluded that there was nothing left to evacuate. We had done all that was physically possible to remove the contaminant.

As the project now drew to a close all remaining hoses, cables, buoys, safety equipment and project hardware were removed. The only remnant of the Oil Project is a guideline attached to the stern of the Jodrey. This line provides a convenient down and stage decompression line for technical divers wishing to test their mettle on the Jodrey.

*We had tap tested the tank for the presence of oil prior to removing the hatch and like any optimistic team we wanted a Texas gusher!

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Conclusion

The Roy A. Jodrey is now open for diving. Fuel oil sightings have not been detected since the clean-up effort. While it is entirely possible that errant oil sightings will be seen, the team remains optimistic that no further remediation efforts are needed. We remain confident that this rebreather driven project has closed a chapter in a decades-long remediation effort.

Our greatest triumph is our record of zero incidences in over 300 man-hours of diving. We attribute our success and safety to:

• Extensive pre-dive analysis and collaborative planning
• Rebreather technology and IANTD training protocols
• Unique blending of technical and commercial diving techniques
• Experience of the team members (military, penetration, salvage and commercial diving background(s) )
• Cardiovascular and muscular fitness
• Familiarity of the site from progressive dive orientations
• On-site recompression chamber and trained hyperbaric medical staff
• Coast Guard and local cooperation
• Zero compromise of agreed safety standards

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