[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY - 7/10/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

July 10, 2007

 

4. Water Quality

 

Editorial: Shape up ship plans; Don't just move pollution around

Vacaville Reporter – 7/10/07

 

The U.S. Maritime Administration has an environmental dilemma on its hands, and it's going to have to work harder to deal with it while satisfying all of the affected parties.

 

The administration is responsible for the 74-ship U.S. Reserve Fleet anchored in Suisun Bay and leaching tons of toxic metals.

 

Two-thirds of those ships are never going to be re-used, so it makes sense to get rid of them. But that is far easier said than done.

 

The nearest ship-scrapping facilities are in Texas, which means towing the ships with their peeling paint around the bay, into the Pacific Ocean and through Panama Canal.

 

Even then, the Coast Guard won't allow them to dock in Texas until their hulls of been scrubbed to remove invasive species that have accumulated during the decades the ships have sat in Suisun Bay. A previous attempt to clean the hulls in Richmond led to large sheets of toxic metals being left in the water, which brought the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board into the picture.

 

Then the Maritime Administration tried to avoid the problem by having the ships cleaned elsewhere, presumably in a country where environmental standards are not as rigorous - a disingenuous decision that was roundly criticized.

 

Now the administration has decided to resume cleaning hulls in the Bay Area, using a new procedure designed to capture potential pollutants. The procedure, which was tested in Virginia, essentially puts a sheet of plastic around the ship to capture material removed from the hull.

 

The process may work just fine. The problem is that the Maritime Administration has not yet shared the results of its test with the Water Quality Control Board, despite a promise to do so.

 

Nor did Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton's decision to resume the cleaning, this time in Alameda, square with a promise given to water quality board chief Bruce Wolfe that hull-cleaning here would be done initially as a pilot program.

 

Instead, Mr. Connaughton's announcement last Thursday made no mention of a Bay Area pilot program and implied that there would be no review of the Virginia results.

 

Given a recent study showing that the mothballed ships have already lost 21 tons of lead, zinc, barium, copper and other toxic metals to the Suisun Bay - with another 65 tons remaining on board - there is no question that the 53 ships scheduled to be scrapped should be removed sooner rather than later.

 

But moving the pollution problem from the Suisun Bay to the San Francisco Bay is no solution. Before any scrubbing begins in Alameda, the Maritime Administration must present scientific assurances that its new hull-cleaning method works. Even then, the system should be monitored to ensure that it works here.

 

The simplest way to deal with this entire problem would be for the Coast Guard to drop its requirements that the hulls be scraped clean before they get to Texas. It does seem like an onerous requirement, given that every year thousands of ships visit Texas ports from all over the world without having their hulls checked for invasive species.

 

Yet we recognize that keeping invasive species out of local waters is a concern. The Coast Guard should be required to demonstrate that ships that have been languishing in the Suisun Bay pose a special hazard to Texas waters. If they do not, then the restriction should be limited.

 

In the meantime, the Maritime Administration must be more forthcoming with the Water Quality Control Board. It is time to deal with the pollution issues caused by the reserve fleet. Simply floating them downstream is not a solution.  #

http://thereporter.com/opinion/ci_6339916

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