![]() ![]() But many of the pieces are small enough for birds or other animals to eat and can create health problems if ingested. The shock tube is made out of low-density polyethylene (the same plastic used to make grocery bags) and is considered safe for humans to touch. The contractor employed a containment strategy with vessels collecting the tubing pieces that floated after detonation, but did not realize more remained in the water, probably mixed in with the rock. ![]() The blasted rock was then brought to the surface and relocated. The tubing was used to send a charge to an explosive placed underwater to break up rock. Blasting concluded in January of 2022 and construction crews removed about 11.5 million cubic yards of dredged material and 0.5 million cubic yards of rock. The improvement plan, begun in June of 2021, deepened the entrance of the harbor to allow larger container ships to enter. And, as soon as they saw it they said, ‘Oops, that’s ours,’” Ludwig said.Īfter a month of detective work, Ludwig had traced the mysterious yellow material – called explosive shock tubing – to the Army Corps of Engineers’ $300 million Boston Harbor dredging project. “I knew if I went to the Army Corps I’d get answers. “So, I started asking around to see if I could figure out what it was.”Įventually she found a fire fighter who thought it might be related to blasting rock in quarries. “I’ve been doing beach clean-ups for decades and I had never ever seen this stuff before, so I knew it had to be related to some situation that’s new,” she said. Late last year, Laura Ludwig, manager of the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Debris & Plastic Program, started noticing pieces of plastic yellow tubing in the piles of Provincetown trash collected and tallied during organized beach clean-ups. ![]()
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