Ship cleaned in S.F. before heading to Texas wasteland
By Thomas Peele
Daily Democrat
SAN FRANCISCO -- After more than three years of contention between California and the federal government over the decaying vessels in Suisun Bay, work is under way at a San Francisco shipyard to clean a World War II-era ship before towing it to Texas for disposal.
Chipping paint is being water-blasted from the hull and superstructure of the Earlham Victory as the 455-foot, 4,400-ton vessel rests in a dry dock. Marine growth, mostly seaweed and barnacles, has been removed.
A similar vessel, the Pan American Victory, has already been cleaned and towed last week out of the Golden Gate for the 45-day journey through the Panama Canal to the Gulf Coast.
The work on the two ships marks a significant first: It's the first time paint has been removed from Suisun Bay ships before they are towed from Bay Area waters, and the first time any pre-disposal work is being done in a dry dock.
A 2007 environmental study estimated that 18 tons of paint containing toxic metals had fallen from the ships into the Bay, prompting legislators and others to call for increased efforts to clean and dispose of the vessels.
Disposal of the two ships will cost the federal government
$3.1 million -- $2.1 million to scrap the ships and $1 million for hull cleaning. More than 50 ships remain in Suisun Bay awaiting disposal, many badly rusted with paint peeling from their hulls.
California clean-water regulators have insisted for years that any ship cleaning be done in a confined space where paint and metals can be kept out of the Bay. The dispute caused the U.S. Maritime Administration, which balked over California's requests, to suspend its ship disposal program while it sought solutions.
The Obama administration in October announced new efforts to clean the ships in dry dock.
"What a difference an election makes. Just about everyone -- with the exception of the Bush administration -- realized that ignoring the corroding ships in the Bay was making a bad situation worse," Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
At the BAE Systems shipyard, workers on Wednesday blasted at the Earlham Victory's hull with high-pressure hoses, the dry-dock floor beneath them covered in paint chips.
Hugh Vanderspek, the shipyard's general manager, said the paint chips would fill 50, 55-gallon barrels.
"It's the right way to do it," he said of Maritime Administration officials' decision to dry-dock the vessel. "Once they said they were going to do it, they aren't screwing around."
The Earlham Victory work is expected to take several weeks.
The Maritime Administration announced a year ago it would also begin removing paint from the vessels while they sat at anchor in the Bay awaiting disposal. A spokeswoman said Wednesday that work on those ships has stalled because the state has yet to issue the necessary permits.
Marine growth below the ship's waterline most be removed under Coast Guard regulations designed to stop the spread of nonnative species to other waters. The state required that the ships be cleaned above their waterlines to keep flaking paint from falling into the water as the ships are being towed.
It is unclear when the next ships will be removed from the Suisun fleet.