SHIP PCB POLICY

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ship PCB Policy

As background on the environmental issues around ship-scrapping, I am
including below the heart of a brief interim report from the General
Accounting Office. The report appeared as an October 17, 1997 letter
(GAO/NSIAD-98-17R) to Sen. John Glenn, ranking Democrat of the
Committee on Governmental Affairs.

BACKGROUND

The Navy became aware of the presence of plychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) in various solid materials on board its ships in April 1989 and
initiated discussions with EPA on how to properly handle the hazardous
materials in September 1989. In July 1994, EPA advised the Maritime
Administration that surplus ships could not be exported for scrapping
under EPA's regulations if the ships contained materials with
concentrations of PCBs at 50 parts per million or greater. On December
6, 1994 EPA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking related to PCB
management and disposal. As a result, the Maritime Administratino
stopped its sales of surplus ships for overseas scrapping in 1994.

The Navy's policy for some time was that its surplus combatant ships
should be scrapped domestically whenever practicable. In July 1995, the
policy was changed to restrict all ship scrapping to the United States
because of the PCB regulatory issues. Since then, the Defense
Reutilization and Marketing Service, the sales agent for the Navy, has
only sold ships for domestic scrapping.

MAJOR POLICY CHANGE

Recognizing a need to reduce its backlog of about 100 surplus ships and
the potential for inreased revenues from sales of ships for overseas
scrapping, the Navy negotiated an agreement with EPA, effective on
Ajugust 8, 1997, to allow its surplus ships to be exported for
scrapping. Except for certain aircraft carriers and nuclear powered
ships that will not be scrapped overseas for national security reasons,
all other obsolete combatant ships may be scrapped overseas as long as
they have been properly demilitarized during the inactivation process.

The agreement allows Navy ships to be exported for scrap if liquid PCBs
are removed. Items containing solid PCBs must also be removed if they
are readily removable and if their removal does not jeopardize the
ship's structural integrity. The agreement also requires the Navy to
notify EPA prior to export of a ship and specifies that EPA notify the
contries where ships will be scrapped. This agreement will remain in
effect until EPA's final rule on PCBs is issued, and it is expected
that the governing language in the final rule will be conistent with
the approaches taken in the agreement. The Navy and the Defense
Reutilization and Marketing Service are now developing procedures to be
used for sale of ships for overseas scrapping. Further, the Maritime
Administration ship disposal program maangers advised us that they are
seeking a similar agreement with EPA to allow them to resume exporting
its 70 surplus ships for overseas scrapping.