Officials push for quicker removal of 'ghost fleet' ships

Suffolk, Newport News and James City County are appealing to Congress and the U.S. government to speed up the removal of environmentally risky ships in the James River Reserve Fleet, also known as the "ghost fleet."

The localities applaud the government for scrapping nearly 80 of these aging dinosaurs since 2001, but they express concern that the pace is slackening and could lead to a toxic spill or other accident that might devastate their shores.

A worst-case-scenario report in 2002 said that if one ship loaded with oil, asbestos, lead and other toxics broke apart in a storm, 50 miles of the James River could be contaminated, including Jamestown, oyster beds and multiple natural areas south to Suffolk and Portsmouth.

"The Reserve Fleet still poses a serious and increasing environmental threat to the Hampton Roads region," according to a resolution passed on June 17 by the Suffolk City Council. "A serious oil or gas spill from the decaying ships is no longer a possibility but a probability." The federal caretaker of the fleet, the U.S. Maritime Administration, said a weak economy and slumping prices for recycled steel are mostly to blame for a slowdown in ship disposals that began last year.

Susan Clark, a maritime spokeswoman in Washington, said her agency has asked Congress for $12 million next budget year to help scrap junk ships but only expects about 15 to be removed in 2010 from the James River Fleet and two others in California and Texas.

Congress still has not passed a formal budget for fiscal 2010. U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican whose district includes areas near the fleet, is pushing for full funding of the ship-disposal program, his office said.

The fleet today consists of 31 old behemoths, lashed together in rows and moored in the middle of the James River, near Fort Eustis in Newport News. Most were built in the 1950s or '60s. Together, they hold about 1.2 million gallons of waste oil, Clark said.

Of the remaining ships, 24 are considered "non-retention," meaning they are waiting to be scrapped or converted to a fishing reef or museum piece by someone other than the government.

Of these 24, eight are in the regulatory pipeline that leads to dismantling, Clark said. Three are under contract to be removed for recycling, and two are pending contract awards, she added. "We anticipate announcing more contracts within the next two weeks," Clark said in an e-mail Monday.

For years, the government had to pay scrap yards to recycle ghost ships, given the high cost and stiff environmental rules governing such work at American facilities.

But more recently, scrap yards have been paying the government for the ships, because the demand - and price - for recycled steel had become so high, mostly because of economic booms in countries such as China and India.

Most junk ships recycled over the past two years were purchased from the Maritime Administration, for example, including one expected to leave Virginia waters by next week, bound for a salvage yard in Texas.

Last year, though, with credit difficult to come by, few scrap yards could afford to bid on ships.

And with Asian construction activity slowing, the price for used steel that comes from recycled ships has plummeted. The Maritime Administration got rid of an average of 20 obsolete vessels a year between 2003 and 2007 but expects to recycle at most 14 this year, and perhaps 15 in 2010, according to Clark and budget documents.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com