Since the spill happened, we’ve gotten reports from England, France, Scotland and Norway! Disk ReportsĪfter getting many informal disk reports over the years, we worked with UNH Cooperative Extension to create a map to collate all the current disk sightings and collect future sightings. We’d heard tales of New England and Canadian lobster gear ending up on European beaches, so perhaps it shouldn’t have been too surprising that we started getting disk reports from Europe as well. Outside the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift go in the opposite direction, bringing water northward and across the Atlantic to the east. The currents in the Gulf of Maine circulate in a counter-clockwise direction and head out of the Gulf of Maine southward. The lost disks didn’t stay in the Gulf of Maine.
But volunteers, beachgoers and walkers continued to find them along the banks of the Merrimack River and on beaches throughout New England. By September 2011, the disks we no longer being found in large clusters and the paid cleanup effort stopped. During those months, it wasn’t unusual for us to find thousands of the disks at one of our beach cleanups. For 6 months, workers combed local coastlines and picked up disks. Hooksett Disk CleanupĪfter the spill, Hooksett hired ENPRO Environmental to conduct a cleanup. They could help Hooksett keep up with growing demand while maximizing its space. The disks provided more surface area for the bacteria. The mesh on the disks allows bacteria to grow. The disks were designed to increase the capacity of the treatment plant. About 250,000 gallons of water emptied into the Merrimack River, and along with it – 4.3 million plastic disks. Thanks to some very stormy weather, an aeration tank at the Hooksett, NH wastewater treatment facility overflowed. In early March 2011, I was surprised by a phone call… it was New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, saying that we might start seeing white plastic disks on our local beaches.
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