Michael Wall's Blog: Health and the Environment tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2010:/blogs/mwall//140 2010-01-31T18:12:41Z Movable Type Enterprise 1.52 Judge: Ghost Fleet pollution illegal tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2010:/blogs/mwall//140.5162 2010-01-21T23:02:22Z 2010-01-31T18:12:41Z For decades, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and its parent agency, the Department of Transportation (DOT), have moored dozens of decrepit and non-operational former military support vessels in San Francisco Bay and abandoned them to the ravages of time and... Michael Wall Ghost Fleet close-upFor decades, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and its parent agency, the Department of Transportation (DOT), have moored dozens of decrepit and non-operational former military support vessels in San Francisco Bay and abandoned them to the ravages of time and weather, as seen in this B-roll. More than twenty tons of heavy metals – lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, and others neurotoxins – have already fallen off these vessels into the center of California’s fragile Bay-Delta, which provides critical habitat for numerous endangered and threatened species.

Today, a federal court in Sacramento, California, ruled that the ongoing pollution caused by MARAD’s neglect is illegal.

MARAD has known about this illegal toxic pollution for more than a decade, but had an affirmative policy of ignoring it until NRDC, and our partners Arc Ecology and Baykeeper, sued. As described in court filings, internal MARAD documents and testimony obtained through litigation reveal that MARAD has been aware since the late 1990s that Suisun Bay ships were discharging hazardous, lead-based paint to Suisun Bay. 

For example, one internal memo from 1997 warned that “exfoliating paint on MARAD ships is an issue that must be addressed,” that “lead paint waste … will be classified as hazardous under RCRA,” and that discharges “are prohibited by federal, state, and local environmental regulations.” And in 2000, DOT’s inspector general reported that MARAD’s non-retention ships were “literally rotting and disintegrating” into the water.  Yet when MARAD discovered the pollution, the agency made a conscious policy decision to do nothing to stop the discharge, failed to seek required permits, and continued to miss disposal deadlines set by acts of Congress.

There are two lessons in this story. The first is that the government itself sometimes acts as if it is above the law. The second is the power of litigation in the hands of private citizens to bring dysfunctional government into line.

Through our lawsuit, which the California Regional Water Quality Control Board ultimately joined, NRDC, Arc Ecology, and Baykeeper are accomplishing what even Congress found itself incapable of accomplishing. After the lawsuit was filed, MARAD began taking steps to remove a few of the most decrepit ships and to clean others. I blogged about this in October in my blog, Two vessels (almost) down, 55 to go. Much work remains to be done.

These measures are welcome, whether prompted by a change in Administration or the prospect of an imminent trial that could be prove embarrassing to a federal government that is supposed to enforce environmental laws rather than break them. But the work MARAD has done to date is not enough. MARAD has recently shown some signs of being willing to move further, faster. We hope that it will.

Today’s ruling underscores the need for MARAD to halt its illegal conduct immediately. If MARAD does not submit to a prompt, thorough, and enforceable plan to fix the problem, NRDC and its co-plaintiffs will seek an order requiring a cleanup when trial commences in June.

]]> Two vessels (almost) down, 55 to go. Much work remains to be done. tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2009:/blogs/mwall//140.4500 2009-10-22T23:20:08Z 2009-11-01T18:51:39Z Today the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced that two vessels from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet will, at long last, be removed for disposal. This is good news. The marine paint on these two inoperable... Michael Wall Today the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced that two vessels from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet will, at long last, be removed for disposal. This is good news. The marine paint on these two inoperable World War II-era hulks is so thick with toxic heavy metals that it is considered hazardous waste. This hazardous paint is peeling off. Some lies scattered on the vessels' decks, waiting to be blown or to fall into the waters of Suisun Bay. Much of this hazardous waste has already fallen off. MARAD now plans to tow these two vessels to dry dock for cleaning and then to a scrap yard for disposal, measures that MARAD claimed for years were impossible. All Californians - the millions who live near and cherish the Bay, the tens of millions who drink water pumped from the Bay-Delta estuary - can cheer, a little, that MARAD is finally moving to dispose of these two obsolete ships before they cause further harm to a deeply imperiled ecosystem.

 

**Paint peeling from the Rider Victory, one of the vessels MARAD is not removing**

Yet once these two ships are towed away, 55 ships will remain to be disposed. Each of those 55 ships is coated with toxic paint. Much of that paint is peeling - or has peeled - off, putting poisons in local waterways. How bad is this problem? In 2000, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General reported that MARAD's non-retention ships "are literally rotting and disintegrating" into the water. In 2007, a MARAD-commissioned analysis concluded that forty of the ships had already lost about twenty tons of lead, zinc, copper, and chromium into the environment. And in 1997, MARAD staff reported that, "If no action is taken, the ships will continue to age and corrode and ultimately may sink."

The pollution from and on these ships violates federal and state water pollution and hazardous waste laws. MARAD knows this. NRDC, Arc Ecology, and Baykeeper - ultimately joined by the State of California - sued MARAD over these violations two years ago. A court hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9.  Today's announcement by MARAD comes more than twelve years after MARAD learned of the pollution problem in Suisun Bay, two years after MARAD was sued - and on the eve of that hearing.

Despite today's welcome announcement, MARAD has not yet committed to a concrete and enforceable timetable for cleaning and removing the remaining ships and has not stopped the ongoing pollution. Every day that goes by without an aggressive and comprehensive effort to clean the vessels is another day where paint full of lead and other metals continues to poison the ecosystem. That's a problem that needs to stop. San Francisco Bay cannot remain a dumping ground for toxic waste.

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