posted on Dec, 11 2004 @ 08:20 AM
Officials from Camden Iron & Scrap, the nearest scrap yard, said the pump housing didn't come from there.
John T. Lehman, a marine engineer and naval architect, said the housing could have come from a dredging operation as far back as the 1920s, when
dumping in the river was more common.
"Somebody didn't go out there in a bass boat and accidentally lose it," he said. "It may have been from decades ago, when this was not an uncommon
thing to do."
The Army Corps of Engineers last dredged the area where the housing was found in 1979. Citgo officials said they last had the area dredged in 1992 by
the American Dredging Co., which was bought by Weeks Marine the following year.
Officials at Weeks Marine, of Cranford, N.J., said that the pump housing was not theirs, and that it appeared to date from long before Weeks got into
the dredging business about 15 years ago.
"We're pretty confident it's not from any of our vessels," company spokesman George Wittich said. "That's a pretty antiquated piece of
equipment."
But Reed said he didn't think the pump housing was that old, judging by the Coast Guard photos he saw. He said the interior of the housing was too
clean.
"I would say it hadn't been in the river a whole, whole long time," he said. "This isn't something that's been missed for 15, 20 years."
www.philly.com...
Probably not terrorism, but the effects are to be felt for many many years.