Navy ready to sink its old ships again
At-sea target use had been suspended
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – The U.S. Navy is resuming its practice of using old warships for target practice and sinking them in U.S. coastal waters after a nearly two-year moratorium spurred by environmental and cost concerns.
Later this month, three inactive vessels – Kilauea, Niagara Falls and Concord – will be sent to a watery grave off Hawaii by torpedoes, bombs and other ordnance during the Rim of the Pacific naval exercises.
The military quietly lifted the moratorium on Sinkex, short for sinking exercise, last year after a review of the requirements, costs, benefits and environmental impacts of the program, the Navy said in a statement to the Associated Press.
It will be the first time since 2010 the Navy has used target practice to dispose of an old ship. Previous targets ranged from small vessels to aircraft carriers such as the USS America.
Conservation groups argue that the ghost ships should instead be recycled at a ship-breaking facility. Concerns about the long-lasting effects of toxic pollutants onboard the ships spurred a lawsuit by those groups to force the Environmental Protection Agency to better catalog and regulate Sinkex. The case, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is ongoing.
The groups said they did not plan to seek an injunction to stop the Navy from restarting the exercises.
“We are appealing to the Navy to continue their moratorium at least until our case is heard,” said Colby Self of the environmental group Basel Action Network, which joined the Sierra Club in suing the EPA. “After the vessels hit the sea bottom, it will be a little too late to redress damages to our precious marine resources.”
The Navy says Sinkex offers valuable live-fire training for times of war and provides clean vessels for at-sea, live-fire exercises from the air, ocean’s surface or underwater.
For decades, the Navy destroyed the vessels with little or no oversight. Then in 1999, the EPA ordered the Navy to better document toxic waste left on the doomed ships while removing as much of the material as possible. In return, the EPA exempted the military from federal pollution laws that prohibit any such dumping in the ocean.
The Navy must estimate the amount of pollutants onboard after the ships are prepared for sinking.
Vice Admiral Gerald Beaman, commander of the combined task force running the exercises, said Monday that each ship will be stripped of PCBs and other contaminants such as asbestos, as required by the Navy’s agreement with EPA.
The exercises must be at least 50 nautical miles – about 57 miles – from shore and in water at least 6,000 feet deep.