Diving into spill threat from sunken ships

Diving into spill threat from sunken ships    The American Salvage Association (ASA) and North American Marine Environmental Protection Association (NAMEPA) will co-sponsor a conference to explore the oil pollution threats from more than 8,500 sunken vessels worldwide, many of them during World War II.
   The conference, 'Wrecks of the World II: Evaluating and Addressing Potential Underwater Threats,' will be held on June 6-7 at the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) in Linthicum Heights, Md.
   'The problem of potentially polluting wrecks has long been discussed and recent incidents around the world have caused government agencies and responsible parties to look proactively at preventing catastrophic oil and other chemical releases from long submerged shipwrecks,' the conference organizers said. 'These wrecks may contain as much as 20 million tons of oil and other hazardous materials. Sporadic or continuous leakages or potential sudden massive spillages from these wrecks pose a continual risk.'
   The conference program is nearly finalized and is available, along with online registration capability, on the ASA and NAMEPA Web sites.