Toxic Fleet
In the upper reaches of San Francisco Bay lie more than 50 decaying military ships, a ghost fleet that is now little more than a toxic dump. Some of the vessels have been in the bay since the Vietnam War, their hulls rusting and depositing heavy metals from peeling paint into its waters. Now, under a new settlement with the U.S. Maritime Administration, NRDC is helping to make sure that the fleet's pollution ends.
"This is an agency that chose not to obey the same laws that apply to every other polluter," says Michael Wall, a senior attorney with NRDC who has led the push for the cleanup. Although the Maritime Administration has known since the 1990s that heavy metals from the vessels were accumulating in Suisun Bay, it took no action to halt the pollution. More than 20 tons of lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, and other toxic metals have already fallen into the bay.
Under the agreement with NRDC, the agency will remove the biggest danger -- the remaining paint chips on the ships' decks, which can wash off each time it rains -- within four months. Peeling paint on the rest of the vessels will be removed or encapsulated within two years. The 25 most decayed ships will be removed for disposal within two and a half years, and all ships will be out of the bay by September 2017.
"This area should never have been a dumping ground for toxic waste," Wall says.