Coastal climate change experiment pulled from Vineyard waters – The Martha’s Vineyard Times 

The novel experiment proposed to study ways to slow climate change through dumping thousands of gallons of sodium hydroxide into waters less than 10 miles from Nomans Land won’t take place near the Island after all.Scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, or WHOI, are now revising its permit request and are instead pursuing plans for the Gulf of Maine.The team with the so-called the LOC-NESS project (also known as Locking away Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope) originally applied for two ocean dumping permits to test the effectiveness and environmental impact of ocean alkalinity enhancement, a climate solution technique using lye to increase the ocean’s natural ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.The plan was two-fold. The first phase was to test the gradual release of 6,600 gallons of sodium hydroxide solution about 9.5 miles south of Nomans Land over 90 minutes, planned for last August; then do the same in the Gulf of Maine this summer on a larger scale.But when the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, extended the comment period for the permit application, WHOI pushed back plans as they awaited final approval. The institute then lost access to their research vessel and planned to reschedule for the upcoming summer.Now, WHOI announced that the project plans to pursue a revised permit for this summer to dump up to around 17,000 gallons, instead of the original proposed 66,000 gallons, in the Gulf of Maine.Adam Subhas, lead researcher on the project, told the Boston Globe that the recent offshore wind developments made the project too difficult.The LOC-NESS experiment has raised concerns for local and regional environmental and fishery groups, many suggesting that the experiment posed risks to marine life.“We are excited at the prospect of moving forward with our research to impartially evaluate the effectiveness and environmental impact of OAE, and we’ve continued to engage and consult commercial and recreational fishers, Indigenous communities, and the general public throughout this process,” Subhas is quoted in a recent press release. “If we are going to prevent the worst effects of climate change, which is already causing the ocean to change at unprecedented rates here in New England and around the world, we need independent, transparent science to determine which solutions work, and which don’t.”The new revised plan, WHOI said, would take place farther north at a location that minimizes the environmental impact to marine life and fishing activities.The new comment period for the revised permit application, announced by the EPA, is between January 15 and February 15.