Wealthy Martha’s Vineyard residents fume as scientists look to drop highly corrosive substance into ocean near the ritzy island

As part of a new strategy to combat climate change, scientists are proposing to dump toxic sodium hydroxide into the ocean just 10 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard starting in September of this year, sparking outrage from locals and environmental groups alike.

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are awaiting EPA approval to release a mixture of 26,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide solution and freshwater into the Atlantic Ocean. They hope it will increase the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide emissions.

Ocean is key to offsetting greenhouse gases, experts say it absorbs 25 percent of all carbon dioxide on Earth.

The scientists behind this “LOC-NESS” experiment (which stands for Locking Away Ocean Carbon in the Northeast Shelf and Slope) liken their hypothesis to giving the ocean a massive dose of Tums, raising its pH and allowing it to absorb more of the gases that warm the planet.

But angry residents and environmentalists are pushing back, claiming that sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is a highly caustic substance that can be deadly to wildlife.

A man from Chappaquiddick, a neighboring island of Martha’s Vineyard, expressed his concerns about the upcoming plan.

“Does anyone else think this is a really bad idea? Releasing 6,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide solution (lye) 10 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard?” Paul Bleicher posted in a local Facebook group linking to a Boston Globe article about the geoengineering plan.

“The paper makes it clear that they expect impacts on the living marine environment. It will take days for the pH to even return to normal,” he added.

There are others who think this is a bad idea. One of them is Benjamin Day, a campaign manager for Friends of the Earth in Massachusetts.

“We unequivocally oppose the proposed LOC-NESS geoengineering experiment,” Day said. “It is astonishing that the EPA would even consider dumping dangerous, caustic chemicals into ocean waters that are home to at least eight endangered species, including North Atlantic right whales and leatherback turtles.”

Day also told the Boston Herald that sodium hydroxide is “an incredibly dangerous substance” that can cause chemical burns to both humans and marine animals.

WHOI scientists are aware of the risks to marine life, but they say the 56-acre area where the chemicals are being dropped will only be toxic for about a minute. The Boston Globe reported.

The solution will also be dyed red to make it easier to trace. This will make the final chemical dump resemble a non-toxic test WHOI conducted south of Cape Cod in August 2023.

There will be a special marine mammal observer on board the boat from which the sodium hydroxide is dropped. Scientists say they will only proceed if there are no mammals nearby.

What they likely cannot control are potential casualties among what other experts call “fundamental” marine life, such as phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish larvae.

“I see it essentially as an attempt to tackle one form of marine pollution – carbon dioxide – with another,” James Kerry, a senior lecturer in marine sciences at James Cook University in Australia, told the Globe.

Several scientists, including Nicholas Hawco, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, argued the opposite, saying that phytoplankton might not suffer any ill effects from an experiment like this.

“Recently, a few published laboratory experiments have shown a limited negative effect on several phytoplankton species by additions of alkalinity,” wrote Hawco, who expressed support for the “LOC-NESS” experiment. “However, given the diversity of phytoplankton species in the ocean…it is not possible to fully simulate the natural environment in the laboratory.”

The EPA has already preliminarily approved the “LOC-NESS” experiment, as well as a larger 65,000-gallon sodium hydroxide landfill 50 miles east of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

If approved, it will happen next summer.

The posh island, whose water could be filled with sodium hydroxide within months, is a popular holiday destination for celebrities including the Obamas and the Clintons.

The EPA also opened a public comment period, which ended a little over a week ago, inviting interested parties to share their thoughts.

Many scientists who doubt that humanity can reduce its massive energy consumption and air pollution within a few decades have spoken out in support of the WHOI move, arguing that it is a smart plan to reduce emissions without requiring societal changes in human behavior.

“Globally, we will be producing billions of tons of dangerously excess carbon dioxide. Neutralizing this by increasing the alkalinity of the ocean offers a (potentially) scalable method that mimics natural weathering,” wrote Professor Phil Renforth, a geochemist at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

The public, probably without a scientific background, also responded.

One woman wrote: ‘This proposal is reminiscent of former President Trump’s comments that people should use BLEACH to counteract the effects of COVID! The idea that caustic chemicals are being intentionally dumped into our oceans, anywhere, defies rational thought.’

Another wrote: ‘It is unacceptable to dump harmful chemicals into the ocean without any baseline data, especially on this scale and in an area that is so important to various marine animals.’

Now that the public comment period has passed, the EPA is expected to make a final decision on the chemical spill off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard sometime this summer.