Tsunami debris outreach and education efforts underway in Washington coast communities

Japanese glass float found along a Westport beach May 2010.

Last week the governments of British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon and California have agreed to work together on a plan to deal with Japanese tsunami debris. The massive field of lumber, refrigerators, fishing boats and other wreckage from the March 2011 tsunami is drifting across the Pacific Ocean and experts believe it could begin washing ashore in Canada and the United States later this year or early 2013.

Each of the West Coast jurisdictions has already started working on its own local plans for potential tsunami waste, from cleaning up wreckage to returning anything of value to Japan, and last week's agreement aims to co-ordinate those efforts.

Coastal communities have been holding a number of outreach meetings hosted by federal and state leaders to educate citizens about what to expect and how to respond to Tsunami debris arriving in the very near future along their local beaches. As stated by many researchers and lead agencies working on the outreach for Tsunami debris, it's not going to be emergency officials or experts on site as the "first responders" when debris is found, it will, in large part, be the general public. In Grays Harbor County the city of Westport's Mayor Michael Bruce worked to coordinate a meeting late last week with state, local, and federal presenters. The evening meeting held at Ocosta High School was requested by Mayor Bruce via the County's Emergency Management Division, to help better inform South Beach residents.

The aim of meetings like this and of this week's west coast wide agreement, is to get everyone on the same page and sharing information so resources can be leveraged for all coastal communities. Additionally the hope is to eliminate misconstrued information about what to expect in terms of debris and how to respond when it begins arriving.

Here are some facts as taken from California State's Department of Emergency Management outreach efforts:

• As much as five million tons of debris were swept into the ocean off Japan last March when a massive magnitude-9 earthquake and resulting tsunami destroyed entire communities.

• Much of that waste likely sank immediately, but more than one million tons is believed to be floating in the Pacific Ocean. Researchers at the University of Hawaii have estimated that only one to five per cent of debris still in the ocean could reach North America.

• Debris is not likely radioactive. Too much time has passed since the tsunami and most of the debris that washed away wasn't from the area around the damaged nuclear plant.

• There have already been reports of water bottles, buoys and other debris with Japanese markings washing ashore on the west coast of Vancouver Island and in the U.S., but none has been confirmed to be from the tsunami. Experts have said some of that debris may have other sources, such as fishing vessels at sea, or may have floated away from Japan before last March.

Last week's agreement lists three areas for B.C., Washington, Oregon, and California to collaborate on. They include: communicating information about the tsunami to the public, ensuring beach cleanups are done safely, and attempting to return anything of sentimental value to Japan. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is coordinating the federal government response in the U.S. The largest area of concern is to educate the public about what to do if they come across potential tsunami debris, primarily, if you see something that looks hazardous, don't touch it and call local authorities to report it.

The biggest challenge in tracking Tsunami debris is the fact that it's very difficult to fingerprint it back to a source. There are reports of debris and buoys washing up on the West Coast already but in most cases it is very difficult to tell where those buoys came from, as those types of buoys and other bottles or floats of Japanese origin wash up along the west coast all the time.

For more information, updates, and FAQs on Tsunami debris visit http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html. Citizens are asked to contact their local authorities for dangerous looking or otherwise questionable or potentially hazardous looking debris. All suspected Tsunami debris found can be reported to by emailing NOAA.