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Posted by Scott
on 10/23/2009, 10:21 am, in reply to "Off the subject: Plan Is Announced to Clean and Scrap Warships "
66.129.225.151
The article in the San Jose Mercury cited two Victory ships were to be cleaned, towed to Texas and scrapped. No decision had been reached on the other 55 ships, presumably including the Iowa.
--Previous Message--
: Plan Is Announced to Clean and Scrap Warships
:
: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS via The New York
: Times
: Published: October 22, 2009
: BENICIA, Calif. (AP) — A fleet of old,
: rotting warships shedding toxic paint into
: the water near San Francisco Bay will be
: cleaned up and recycled under a new plan
: announced by federal officials on Thursday.
:
: John Porcari, the deputy secretary of
: transportation, said the government had
: already awarded contracts to dispose of two
: World War II-era cargo ships from the Suisun
: Bay Reserve Fleet.
:
: The group of more than 70 mostly obsolete
: vessels in Suisun Bay, about 25 miles
: northeast of San Francisco, has been at the
: center of a deadlock of nearly three years
: between state water regulators and the
: federal government, which manages the fleet.
:
: Mr. Porcari said the ships would be cleaned
: in dry dock, not the bay, alleviating state
: officials’ concerns about more pollution.
:
: “This is definitely big,” said Bruce H.
: Wolfe, executive officer of the San
: Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control
: Board. “This is the start.”
:
: A Congressional order set a 2006 deadline to
: scrap more than 50 of the ships, but a
: regulatory quagmire has kept them in place.
:
: A lack of disposal operations on the West
: Coast means the ships must be towed to Texas
: to be broken apart. Under federal law, they
: must be cleaned of invasive species clinging
: to their hulls before they can enter the
: ocean.
:
: California officials fought a Bush
: administration plan to clean the ships where
: they were anchored, arguing that the process
: would cause paint laden with heavy metals to
: flake into the bay. They also filed suit
: against the federal government, claiming the
: paint flaking off the ships as they idle put
: the fleet in violation of the federal Clean
: Water Act.
:
: Mr. Wolfe said the state would continue to
: press its suit until a settlement or court
: order put legal force behind the
: government’s commitment to get rid of all
: ships awaiting disposal.
:
:
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