[CPEO-MEF] SHIPS: Lawsuit challenges SINKEX

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

For Immediate Release
Center for Biological Diversity
June 28, 2012

Suit and Petition Filed to Challenge Ship Sinkings

SEATTLE - The U.S. Navy's "Great Green Fleet," joined by 22 friendly  
nations, will fire on and sink three inactive U.S. naval warships  
this summer off the coast of Hawaii during the Rim of the Pacific  
("RIMPAC") war games. Because of the toxic contamination this will  
cause, conservation groups have filed a complaint over the Navy’s  
exemption from the laws regarding disposal of toxic waste. But the  
ship-sinking exercises are going forward.

Based on documentation of known contaminants found in more than 100  
ships sunk by the Navy over the past 12 years, the ships are  
contaminated with toxic heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls  
(PCBs). Sinking - instead of recycling - these ships will send toxic  
chemicals into the marine environment and needlessly deprive the U.S.  
ship recycling industry of both resources and jobs.

The deliberate sinking of the vessels is part of a target-practice  
ship-disposal exercise known as SINKEX (sinking exercise). This  
year’s operation will be the first such ocean dumping of old ships  
since the chief of naval operations placed a moratorium on SINKEX in  
2011, and the first since the Sierra Club and Basel Action Network  
(BAN), represented by Earthjustice, filed a formal complaint against  
the EPA for continuing to allow the ocean dumping of toxins on SINKEX  
vessels.

...

For the entire release, see
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2012/ 
sinkex-06-28-2012.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, 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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