The United States Maritime Administration has temporarily halted its ship scrapping programme - a move that could delay and complicate the removal of junk vessels in the Virginia-based James River Reserve Fleet, also known as the ‘Ghost Fleet’. No new disposal contracts will be awarded to salvage yards until a discrepancy over environmental laws governing ship recycling is resolved, according to maritime administrator Sean Connaughton. ‘Obviously, it’s a situation that has to be addressed as quickly as practicable,’ he adds. The decision is based on a federal rule which requires the hulls of obsolete ships to be scrubbed of marine growth before leaving for a salvage yard. The cleaning technique, called ‘scamping’, is designed to curb the spread of invasive species that may be clinging to hulls and could cause ecological problems elsewhere. The worry is that the scrubbing action may release pieces of lead paint and other pollutants into host waters.
US Congress had decreed that all unwanted ships should be safely dismantled by September 2006, fearing that the ageing hulks could develop leaks and cause environmental harm. However, the deadline was missed.
The Maritime Administration froze a controversial 2003 contract that called for 13 ships from the James River Reserve Fleet to be dismantled in the UK. The US$ 17.8 million contract sparked a storm of protests and lawsuits from US and UK environmentalists who argued that the USA should not be dumping toxic wastes from its obsolete ships on other nations.
To date, none of the ships have been dismantled on the other side of the Atlantic because the Able UK base near Hartlepool does not have all the government permits required to operate such a facility. The vessels remain anchored and untouched outside of Hartlepool after a municipal panel voted last October to refuse the scrapping permit application.
Acknowledgement
Part of RecyclingBizz archive of May 2007
