[CPEO-MEF] SHIPS: Inspecting the Suisun Bay (CA) Ghost Fleet

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ghost Fleet inspection shows welcome progress


Jon Wiener
Natural Resources Defense Council Switchboard
September 3, 2010

I grew up gazing at the Suisun Bay Ghost Fleet through the window of my 
parents’ car as we would cross the Benicia Bridge on our way to the 
mountains.  Later, when I started riding Amtrak to visit friends and 
family, I was able to get a bit of a closer view.  Even as an adult, I 
always thought the ships seemed majestic and mysterious.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when I came to NRDC and learned that 
years of neglect had essentially turned the fleet of 57 Navy support 
ships into an unregulated, unpermitted toxic waste dump.  As my 
colleague Michael Wall has blogged about previously, these historical 
icons had been leaching large amounts of lead paint and other heavy 
metals into the bay for decades.  (This revelation was eerily similar to 
a disappointing discovery in my previous career as a reporter, when I 
learned that Moffett Field’s historic Hangar One, which I had toured as 
a young boy while attending Blue Angels shows, was polluting South Bay 
wetlands).  This pollution continued in spite of Congressional mandates, 
environmental laws, and even some internal alarms.  In fact, little 
happened until NRDC and its partners sued the U.S. Maritime 
Administration.  Then, after years of fighting, MARAD—under the 
direction of a new administration—agreed to a court-ordered schedule to 
clean up and remove the ships.


...

For the entire blog, see
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mwall/ghost_fleet_inspection_shows_w.html

--


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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