Jon, I agree with the decision to write the letter. I have confidence you
will draft an intelligent letter and appreciate you taking on the effort. I
will be very interested in the response.
Thanks,
Steve McQueen
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Jon Wallace
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 1:23 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Corps of Engineers shut down submersibles
FYI,
Colonel Robert D. Peterson, Commanding Officer of the Huntington Area Corps
of Engineers, issued Directive to Operations CELRH-DE on Sept 9,
2011 prohibiting use or operation of submersible vessels in all Corps lakes
within the boundaries of Huntington District. This order was issued in
response to a PSUBS member attempting to dive his submarine at Summersville
Lake in West Virginia.
The Huntington District encompasses 45,000 square miles in parts of five
states, including West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and North
Carolina. It is responsible for 311 navigable miles along the Ohio River,
which includes the Nation's largest Inland Waterway port, the Port of
Huntington.
According to Alec Smyth, he had traveled to Summersville Lake in West
Virginia to dive SNOOPY, his K-250. Alec has dived here before, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12XqUORL8yc
After setting up in the parking lot, all the park rangers showed up, were
friendly, and asked the usual questions which Alec answered and even invited
them to inspect his submarine. No problems were incurred and the dive
proceeded to launch as normal. After launching and about
100 yards off shore Alec was asked via a loudspeaker to return to the shore.
At this time there were a bunch of police officers and an FBI agent. The
FBI agent asked for ID's, which were provided, and after verifying Alec and
others with him, reported that everything had checked out fine. However,
the agent also had some bad news for Alec telling him that the Corps of
Engineers Commander had just issued an order prohibiting submersibles from
diving in any Huntington District lakes or waterways based upon concerns of
safety and infrastructure.
Not only has Alec dived in Summersville Lake on prior occasions without
incident, but the PSUBS 2006 convention was planned with coordination of the
Corps of Engineers who made park facilities, picnic areas, and meeting rooms
available to us free of charge. Six home-built submersibles attended that
event and dove in Raystown Lake, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QCwCKUKeqA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g70A6o7SaKs
I am working with Alec to draft a letter from our organization to Colonel
Robert Peterson, to understand exactly what the issues are and see if we can
help resolve them. As Alec told me, this is a big blow because Corps lakes
are pretty much all there is for diving in the mid Atlantic states. This
incident is almost assuredly related to the high alert surrounding the 9/11
tenth anniversary terrorist attack. While there may be legitimate concerns
about potential damage submersible diving could do to the submerged
infrastructure of a lake (clog up a dam intake??), invoking an immediate
prohibition on all submersible activity seems to be an arbitrary and
premature overreaction, to me, considering the diving that has been done
previously and the direct coordination provided by the Corps of Engineers
for the 2006 convention.
In the interim, members planning any diving activities within the Huntington
District Corps of Engineers should be careful to avoid this area.
Jon
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CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database
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from our organization.
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link below or send a blank email message to:
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our server receiving your request.
PSUBS.ORG
PO Box 53
Weare, NH 03281
603-529-1100
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