A very small portion of the Ghost Fleet - a graveyard of old ships on
the James River in Virginia. |
The Ghost Fleet is a lyrical-sounding name for
what is a floating graveyard of rusting and rotting
vessels. It is the clearest example of
the problem of ageing ships and how to dispose
of them. There
are about 200 retired or decommisioned ships
sitting at four shipyards on the coasts of the
continental U.S.
The James River in southern Virginia
is home to about 60 of the Ghost Fleet vessels--geriatric
U.S. naval and merchant vessels that have outlived
their usefulness and now are valued only for
their potential as scrap metal.
Some of these craft are 50 years old, built during
a time when hazardous materials such as lead, asbestos
and PCB's were used regularly in their construction.
They languish, tethered together, their ageing
hulls filled with toxins, deteriorating on Virginia's
longest, most important waterway.
Occasional leaks from these rotting hulls into
the waters of the James River have been documented.
A 2001 study estimated
that the potential damage to the area if any of
the ships broke up would be disastrous to the nearby
oyster beds and nature reserves. The study concluded
that a clean-up from such a spill could take
years and cost more than $35 million. (read
the study) (.pdf file)
Environmentalist Jim Puckett, from the Basel Action
Network, says that it's an ecological tragedy that's
poised to explode. "People
are realizing that they're a ticking time bomb
because they've never bothered to take the fuels
out. And they've never bothered to take any of
the PCB's out. They just sitting there, these toxic
ships, ready to sink."
Before 1994, ships of the Ghost Fleet could be sold for scrap to shipbreaking
yards like the one in Alang, India.
Visit a photogallery that
tells the story of Alang. |
Until 1994, the ships of the Ghost Fleet could
be sold for scrap to ship breakers in third world
countries such as India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
In 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
banned the export of toxic wastes, including
those used in ships' electric and hydraulic
systems. The Ghost Fleet continued to languish
and leak.
In 2003, a deal between the U.S. government and
a British company, Able UK, was struck to send
13 ships of the Ghost Fleet to Britain for dismantling
at Able UK's operation located on the Tees
River in northeastern England.
Environmental groups
in the U.S. and in the UK launched legal action
against the deal. Ultimately, only four ships of
the Ghost Fleet vessels arrived on the English
coast, but just in time to have the British courts
dismantle the business deal. (see details
of the lawsuit) (.pdf file)
BaselStudy:
NEEDLESS RISK |
In 2003, The Basel
Action Network published a study called
NEEDLESS RISK: The Bush Administration's
Scheme to Export Toxic Waste Ships to Europe.
It helped kill the deal with Able UK.
READ
THE STUDY  (.pdf
file) |
It was a victory
for the environmentalists who believe that if the
U.S. is allowed to sell ships containing toxic
substances to any country, even Britain, it might
be allowed to sell them anywhere. British environmentalists
claimed that Able UK was not equipped to dispose
safely of the ships' toxic
contents.
The Ghost Fleet remains moored in the waters
of the James River. The American Congress set a
date to have it dismantled - 2006, but the
same Congress has yet to appropriate the hundreds
of millions of dollars it would cost to do the
job. A few ships of the fleet that are dismantled
every year at American ship breaking yards, but
at the same time, its ranks swell as more ships
are de-commissioned and join the fleet.
(see the resources
page for more reports on the costs and problems
associated with dismantling the Ghost Fleet) |
