News

Woods Hole Group Opens a New Office

July 22, 2010

Woods Hole Group has announced the opening of its second Massachusetts office, located at 57 Route 6A in Orleans. The new facility will serve as an extension and satellite office of Woods Hole Group's headquarters in Falmouth.

The Orleans location was opened in an effort to provide additional resources to its Lower Cape clients and in response to deteriorating beach conditions in the area. It will offer the same services and resources through the company's global network and it will primarily focus on providing coastal sciences, engineering and planning services.

With offices in Falmouth, Delaware and Texas, the Orleans facility is Woods Hole Group's fourth domestic office. Peter Markunas will be the lead person in the new office, and Beth Hays, environmental permitting specialist, will also work there.

BEACH NEWS

American Shore & Beach Preservation Association

June 22, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kate or Ken Gooderham, (239) 489-2616 or exdir@asbpa.org

Oil and water: Spills and the shoreline, part 2

As oil continues to leak into the Gulf, what does it mean to beaches and the critters who rely on them? Answers to some of the common questions.

FORT MYERS -- The ongoing crisis surrounding the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has grabbed the nation's attention, as what is being dubbed as perhaps the nation's worst environmental disaster has released an untold amount of crude oil into the Gulf. This disaster has far too many aspects to be addressed in one sitting, but there have been numerous questions to ASBPA as to how the spill will impact the coastline. Therefore, the following FAQs will look at how the spill and the shoreline (and its users) interact.

Question: Is the only impact of an oil spill limited to the oil released into the water that can coat animals and ecosystems?

Answer: NO. That may be the main impact, but the short-term air quality issues when oil first reaches the surface also come into play. Within the first few hours, benzene and other VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) can degrade the air quality in the immediate area of freshly spilled crude oil, and the lingering odor can prove unpleasant (even unhealthy) for days to follow. See reports on air quality monitoring along the Gulf coast at http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/air.html . Oil that floats on the water can reduce the amount of sunlight reaching any plants below, causing damage without actually touching them. It may also lessen the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, also harmful to water-based organisms. And the potential damage from undersea oil plumes is uncharted territory, as this is the first instance where scientists have reported finding them in conjunction with a spill.

Question: If while walking the beach you come upon a bird coated with oil, should you try to rinse it off?

Answer: NO. First, this is not an undertaking for the untrained. Animals will naturally be frightened by your approach (not to mention by the oil), and that fear can hurt you and them. Second, recovery is a lot more complicated than washing off a little oil, and likely will require veterinary care. Your best response is to contact local authorities -- either law enforcement or, if you know which agency is in charge, the group in charge of wildlife care in that area. They can call on people trained in animal recovery, who will have the tools and talent to help the animal survive.

Question: Can the greatest economic impact from an oil spill be from something that doesn't happen.

Answer: YES, at least if you're involved in a tourism-related business. For the entire Gulf Coast, and particularly Florida, the fear is that potential visitors will assume their favorite beach, estuary or fishing spot is an oily mire from the Gulf spill, and they'll change their travel plans accordingly. In any coastal community where tourists' cash keep businesses open and residents employed, a visitor drop on the magnitude some anticipate can wreck any economy fast. Expect to see a strong push to keep the Gulf beachfront status of the spill in the mind of the traveling public.

Question: Would a hurricane traveling through the Gulf of Mexico make the oil spill conditions worse?

Answer: MAYBE. High surf could drive oil further onshore and into wetlands and estuaries -- making it much more damaging. But it could also help remove oil from the beaches and nearshore waters, as happened in Texas after the 1979 Ixtoc I spill off the Mexican coast. It would certainly help disperse the oil slick, but could also dredge up some of the oil that had sunk into deeper waters or the ocean floor. All told, no one is feeling confident how the impact of a hurricane hitting the spill would play out. The change to currents, waves and winds by a large storm will have an impact on the spill, but are difficult to quantify since they are unique to each storm system.

Question: What's the scope of this spill in relation to similar disasters?

Answer: WE'LL GET BACK TO YOU ON THAT. An accurate assessment of how much oil has actually been released will be a long time off, so it's hard to put it into perspective in comparison to other spills. Remember that no two spills are alike...one needs to consider the type of oil, type of shoreline, location, hydrology, climatic conditions, environmental resources and recovery patterns, etc.

Here are some numbers to consider (remember, 1 barrel equals 42 U.S. gallons):

• Gulf War spill, Persian Gulf, 1991: Almost 11 million barrels spilled...considered the worst oil spill (so far).
• Ixtoc I oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, 1979: More than 3 million barrels.
• Atlantic Empress/Aegean Captain ships, Trinidad and Tobago, 1979: A little over 2 million barrels.
• Well-known U.S. spills: Exxon Valdez (1989) released at least 250,000 barrels; the 1969 Santa Barbara blowout spewed just over 100,000 barrels.

Revised estimates of the Deepwater Horizon spill posit between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels a day were being released, depending on who you ask and what day you start measuring. (Oil losses after the June 3 cut in the riser pipe to install a cap may have reached 40,000 to 60,000 barrels per day by some estimates.)

What does this mean in terms of the water body in question? The Gulf of Mexico totals some 643 quadrillion gallons (or 15 quadrillion barrels); a quadrillion is equal to a million billion. The Mississippi River adds an average of 3.3 million gallons (or 78,570 barrels) of new water to the Gulf every second.

Question: Once the oil stops leaking, will we be able to define the full extent of the damage in short order?

Answer: NO. The Exxon Valdez spill -- which dumped 250,000 barrels of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound -- took 20 years and an estimated $3.5 billion to resolve. Experts are saying we won't know the full extent of the damages -- environmental, economic and more -- for years, and expect this disaster to be the focus of scientific and legal energy for years more after that. For updates on the Deepwater Horizon spill, go to www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com. To learn more about beach issues and management, visit www.asbpa.org.

# # #

June 17, 2010

June 10, 2010

The Falmouth office phone system is back up and running.

June 8, 2010

The Woods Hole Group, Falmouth office voicemail system is out of order because of a lightning strike over the weekend. Calls to the main number can be transferred to an individual’s line, but the direct dial numbers are not working. If your call is transferred to someone’s line and they are not in their office to answer, there is no option for voicemail. We are working on this and hope the system will be up and running soon.

Earth Day, April 22, 2010

Woods Hole Landholdings (WHLH) teamed with Beaumont Solar in December 2009 to install a 176-panel 40 kilowatt (KW) solar photovoltaic (PV) array on the building that is home to Woods Hole Group.

This Earth Day, Woods Hole Group is proud to announce that since activation on December 10, 2009, our PV system has generated 6400 kilowatt hours (kWh) and offset approximately 8000 lbs of CO₂ emissions. Four tons of avoided emissions are equivalent to the personal offsets for almost five round trip flights from Boston to Los Angeles. In just over four months, our 2400 square foot rooftop installation has reduced the same amount of emissions as would be sequestered by 93 trees over ten years.

Woods Hole Group analyzed building energy use from available data and calculated that the PV array supplied 19% of our electricity in January, 29% in February, and 22% in March. As summer nears, we are looking forward to up to 40% renewable energy.

• Driving 2009 Toyota Camry 8000 miles
• Consumption of 408 gallons of gasoline
• Consumption of 8.4 barrels of oil
• Use of 151 propane barbecue cylinders

January 21, 2010 - Press Release

Woods Hole Group Awarded Wellfleet’s Mayo Creek Restoration Project Contract

Woods Hole Group to study restoration options to restore tidal flow to creek

Falmouth, MA, January 21, 2010—Woods Hole Group, Inc. an international, environmental, scientific, and engineering consulting organization headquartered in Falmouth, has been awarded a contract by the Town of Wellfleet to support a project to restore tidal flow to Mayo Creek. The purposes of the project are to restore salt marsh habitat, improve water quality, and enhance drainage of the watershed. Woods Hole Group will conduct a hydraulic study and apply a computer model to optimize a project design to maximize environmental benefits.

“Woods Hole Group is happy to be part of the evaluation process for finding the best and most cost-efficient engineering solution to restore Mayo Creek,” said Bob Hamilton, Vice President for Business Development and Coastal Engineer at Woods Hole Group. “The Town of Wellfleet takes the protection of its waterways seriously, and restoring tidal flow to the creek is an important step to ensure its long-term health.”

Mayo Creek is connected to Wellfleet Harbor through an existing structure under Commercial Street that restricts tidal flow. Over the course of the contract, which runs until November 2010, Woods Hole Group will evaluate different restoration options, and make a recommendation for an improved connection to maximize tidal exchange to help restore the upstream salt marsh, while improving drainage. The project also will assess potential flooding of low lying infrastructure, and provide recommendations to restoring tidal flow to the maximum extent possible while avoiding adverse impacts.

In order to accomplish this Woods Hole Group will:

• Review and take full advantage of existing data.
• Apply a computer model to simulate flow to the marsh for existing conditions, and evaluate a suite of possible restoration alternatives, including potential water management devices
• Develop computer-generated output to help stakeholders visualize and understand the project.
• Deliver a final report, including a recommended alternative for restoring the salt marsh.

For more information, please contact Bob Hamilton at bhamilton@whgrp.com or (508) 540-8080.

Woods Hole Group is an international, environmental, scientific, and engineering consulting organization headquartered in Falmouth, Massachusetts. With its breadth of vision and emphasis on a sustainable future global environmental, Woods Hole Group provides premier integrated solutions to meet the challenge of environmental problems worldwide. As a leader in environmental sciences and engineering, Woods Hole Group’s expertise includes environmental impact and risk assessment, measurement systems for real-time operational guidance, oceanography, and coastal sciences, engineering and planning. Woods Hole Group was founded in 1986 by Dr. David Aubrey.

January 6, 2010

Woods Hole Landholdings (WHLH) has announced that it has equipped the headquarters of Woods Hole Group with a solar panel installation. The company has teamed up with Beaumont Solar for the renewable energy project. The installation has utilized solar panels from Sun Power. At present, the solar panels from Sun Power are the most efficient panels available on the global solar market. The office building is headquarters for the Woods Hole Group Inc. and its subsidiary, the Woods Hole Group Middle East. The solar power system has 176 panels and occupies approximately 2,400 square foot of space on the roof.

David Aubrey, owner of WHLH, said that the company has taken initiatives to help the country develop more sustainable and renewable energy by equipping its office building with the solar panel installation. He commented though the building was constructed with renewable energy component it its design ten years ago, the company was not able to finalize a contract for equipping it with solar power. Aubrey stated that with this installation, WHLH is helping the country to adopt sustainable business practices.

WHLH has taken advantage of a grant from the Federal government through the Stimulus Bill as well as a rebate from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust to build the solar panel installation. Direct current will be generated by the solar photovoltaic panels by converting the solar radiation. The power generated from the system will meet up to 40% of the electricity requirements of the building. Within a period of five years, the total cost of the system will be paid back. WHLH is also adopting another energy saving initiative to save more than 50% of electricity used for lighting by upgrading its exterior as well as interior lighting systems. A similar solar project for its corporate offices is also recommended by Woods Hole Group, Middle East in collaboration with Beaumont Solar in Saudi Arabia.

(December 28, 2009 - Email from Robert Catalano)

Woods Hole Group has received the attached letter from Blue Ocean Energy commending Woods Hole Group on its safety record during the execution of the project.

The project spanned 14 months and covered multiple service trips on various vessels of opportunity - all without a safety incident.

The letter, while addressed to me, is really meant as an acknowledgement to everyone that participated on the project.  I want to thank all of you for your efforts that contributed to the safe execution of the project.

In particular, I want to acknowledge and thank Dave Walsh and Dave Szabo who were responsible for preparing and implementing each of the safety plans for each of the cruises. 

The brass compass paperweight, engraved with the Project name is in my office for anyone that wants to see the award.

Again - thank you to all who were part of this project.

Robert A. Catalano
Vice-President, Science Operations
Woods Hole Group, Inc.

As published in the Cape Cod Times on November 20, 2009:

"The Woods Hole Group in Falmouth has added four employees to its staff.

Kaitlyn McCartney is a coastal engineer who recently earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical and ocean
engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a research and teaching assistant.

David Bailey is a field technician who was formerly a fisheries observer at A.I.S. Inc. in New Bedford.

Todd Morrison of Falmouth is a senior ocean engineer with more than 25 years of experience, including as the
vice president of engineering for Nobska Development. Among his many degrees, he has a doctorate in
oceanographic engineering from MIT.

Joseph Famely is a coastal scientist who recently earned a master of environmental management degree from
the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He worked this past summer as an environmental impact
assessment consultant for Hudson River Valley Resorts." link to the story

A feature article (which was developed cooperatively between Woods Hole Group and NOAA) about Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS) appeared in the May 2009 edition of Hydro International magazine. link to the story

Dr. Lee Weishar one of three new directors named to American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA). link to the story