2006 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 15 May 2006 06:26:15 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] California's ghost fleet
 
Suisun Bay fleet hardly shipshape

By Thomas Peele
CONTRA COSTA TIMES (CA)
May 14, 2006	

Obsolete ships anchored in Suisun Bay have decayed so much that the U.S. government sometimes pays more to scrap just one of them than it spends in a year to maintain the entire fleet, federal documents show.

Hazardous materials including asbestos, PCBs, lead paint, mercury, chromates, toxic tin and arsenic are omnipresent in the fleet.

What makes the ships expensive to get rid of also makes them dangerous. The vessels, many of them World War II relics, must be made safe enough to stay afloat for the 45-day tow to Texas scrapping yards.

One environmentalist called the fleet a "ticking time bomb." An engineer familiar with the ships questioned whether some of them can survive the trip to Texas.

U.S. Maritime Administration officials insisted the ships are safe, but for more than a year, they have stalled release of hull testing data the Times requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/14577386.htm
--


Lenny Siegel Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 <lsiegel@cpeo.org> http://www.cpeo.org


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