[CPEO-MEF] SHIPS: California's Ghost Fleet

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Giving up the ghost fleet

Jan McGirk
China Dialogue
June 8, 2010

In California, rusting US navy ships that were poisoning bay waters for 
decades are being cleaned up, moved and recycled - thanks to a legal 
victory by local environmental groups. Jan McGirk reports.

It's clear that the health risks from a fleet of decrepit US navy troop 
ships and tankers, moored for nearly half a century in the shallow 
backwaters of San Francisco Bay, are being taken seriously at last. 
Before I am allowed to board any of the rusty warships -- which have 
been oozing oil, asbestos, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 
tonnes of heavy metals into the upper part of the bay for decades -- US 
officials insist that I sign a liability waiver. Afterwards, they warn 
me not to touch my eyes or consume any food until I undergo a thorough 
scrub.

Fifty-two of these Second World War-era vessels are finally being hauled 
away, one by one, from Suisun Bay after northern Californian 
environmentalists sued the Maritime Administration (MARAD) -- part of 
the US transportation department -- for violating the country's Clean 
Water Act and for illegally storing hazardous waste aboard the ships.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3658

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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