Groups suing over mothball fleet in Suisun Bay

From the Contra Costa County Times:

Environmentalists on Monday sued to force the federal government to clean up toxic material in its decaying fleet of ships near Benicia and produce a cleanup plan for the U.S. Maritime Administration’s ships here and in Texas and Virginia.

Citing a recent study that showed the ships east of the Benicia Bridge have shed as much as 18 tons of metals into Suisun Bay, the environmental groups said the decaying ships present an entirely unregulated threat to the environment and to human health.

“If a corporation were to float a rusty barrel of hazardous waste out there, that would be against the law,” said Michael Wall, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The federal government has to comply with the same laws.”

Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to force the Maritime Administration to safely dispose of the metals, PCBs, oil, asbestos and other toxic materials on the ships.

It also seeks to force the agency to conduct an environmental impact study of its management plan for the three fleets. Such a study would analyze the environmental effects of maintaining and disposing of the ships and would result in developing management and disposal methods.

“We want them to stop polluting Suisun Bay by addressing the (peeling) paint first and then finding an environmentally responsible way to dispose of the ships, preferably in the Bay Area,” said Saul Bloom of the San Francisco environmental group Arc Ecology, which monitors pollution at federal facilities.

To read the full text of the story from the Contra Costa County Times, click here.

Photo of mothball fleet from Telstar Logistics and flickr.com. Click on the picture to see more of Telstar Logistic’s pictures.

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