Ghost Fleet breaks the LAW!!

[Navy1960]

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled Thursday that a fleet of rotting warships anchored near San Francisco Bay is in violation of federal and state pollution laws.

Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. ruled in U.S. District Court in Sacramento that the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet was in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Burrell wrote in a summary judgment that the U.S. Maritime Administration, the agency responsible for the ships, was breaking the law by continuing to allow paint from the obsolete vessels to flake off into the bay.

He also found that the flaking paint put the agency afoul of California hazardous waste regulations.
Judge: Calif. ghost fleet breaks pollution laws - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times

This fleet has been there for over 50 years since the end of WW2 and it is now an environmental hazard. It should be noted that San Francisco was offered the USS Iowa as a museum a few years ago and it was rejected by the city as a symbol of war. With all the ships there perhaps a good thing to do with them is look for ways to use some of them , or dispose of them and create work when doing so as a suggestion. It woud appear that rather than spend the money in directed efforts to run to court for every environmental issue in California , some of could be better spent on finding solutions.

 

[Xenophon]

They should scrap them, many or most of them are no longer useful.

 

[Oddball]

Find a home for the Iowa.

 

[Big Fitz]

Leave it to loonie liberal judges to find something of no importance to distract the hoi polloi.

 

[rightwinger]

Use them as homeless shelters

 

[Xenophon]

Find a home for the Iowa.

You can help:

Save the USS Iowa - Help Preserve the Battleship USS Iowa

Personally I would love to see her in NY next to intrepid, what a fine pair they would make.

 

[rightwinger]

I remember those ships 30 years ago when I lived in SF

 

[namvet]

we used to call that pact rat fleet.

 

[ScottBernard]

Wonder how much it would cost to scrap them all.

 

[sboyle24]

Nothing wrong or special about this move. Lets move on.

 

[blastoff]

Yawn...

 

[namvet]

durint the war we cannibalized a lot of em for spare parts. to save the gov $$$. im just surprised any are left. many were salvaged, sunk, used for target practice, artifical reefs and many sold to other countries. almost the entire fleet used in Nam were WW2 or Korean vets. including the ammo they fired.

I do hope they find a home for the Iowa.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

We could use them to restart an America steel industry.

 

[Navy1960]

The San Pedro waterfront makeover approved last year includes a lot of new elements - a convention center, more retail and entertainment space, acres of parks and miles of promenade, to name a few - but the prospect that has most excited our readers is nearly 70 years old.

It's also not actually part of the revamp slated to take place over the next decade. But judging by the response the Daily Breeze has gotten from a recent front-page story, we'd recommend the port find a way to incorporate it.

It is the USS Iowa, a World War II battleship that, before being deployed in the Pacific, was used to ferry President Franklin Roosevelt across the Atlantic to meet with Winston Churchill. And a group known as the Pacific Battleship Center wants the Port of Los Angeles to give it a home.

As this news spread, we not only received several passionate letters, but the story also elicited scores of comments on our Web site. We estimate that, of those, 99 percent were positive - a nearly unparalleled distinction for any story in our forums. We've even fielded a few phone calls on the topic, which moved some callers to (joyful) tears.

Make room for the USS Iowa - The Daily Breeze

Take heart , one day the USS Iowa will be on display somewhere in California. The USS Iowa was put on dontation status by the US Navy and by the US Senate that California be the future home of the USS Iowa. There are 2 groups that are currently trying to port her one in LA and one in Northern California.


Let me give you an example of some ships that were once in the Ghost fleet. There was a class of destroyer called the Spruance class that constisted of 31 ships. The Navy was so sure of the DDG-1000 ships that it moved the dates in which about 12 of these ships were to be mothballed up by many years. Those ships have been disposed of in training exercises, i.e. targets. Take for example the USS Hayler. The ship itself was only 20 years old a the time of her removal from the fleet and that is NOT old by Navy standards when you consider that ships like the USS Enterprise are 50 years old and will be about 55 when it is finally replaced by the USS Gerald R. Ford. So while many think that all those ships in the Ghost Fleet are worthless and need to be just disposed of consider that the Navy sometimes in its efforts to convince congress the need for furture operations puts ships there sooner than they need to be. Rather than taking a good ship like the Hayler and others and using them for targets, SELL them and use than money to offset furture surface warfare units would be my suggestion and the ones that cannot be used, scrap them for the steel for the same reason.

 

[Xenophon]

I remember the Spruance class, they came into service in the late 70s-early 80s.

 

[bodecea]

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled Thursday that a fleet of rotting warships anchored near San Francisco Bay is in violation of federal and state pollution laws.

Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. ruled in U.S. District Court in Sacramento that the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet was in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Burrell wrote in a summary judgment that the U.S. Maritime Administration, the agency responsible for the ships, was breaking the law by continuing to allow paint from the obsolete vessels to flake off into the bay.

He also found that the flaking paint put the agency afoul of California hazardous waste regulations.
Judge: Calif. ghost fleet breaks pollution laws - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times

This fleet has been there for over 50 years since the end of WW2 and it is now an environmental hazard. It should be noted that San Francisco was offered the USS Iowa as a museum a few years ago and it was rejected by the city as a symbol of war. With all the ships there perhaps a good thing to do with them is look for ways to use some of them , or dispose of them and create work when doing so as a suggestion. It woud appear that rather than spend the money in directed efforts to run to court for every environmental issue in California , some of could be better spent on finding solutions.

Good Lords! Are they STILL there????

 

[bodecea]

Have the Iowa set up as a Monument to the NIS and their competence.

 

[Navy1960]

Still there yes at least for the moment.

 

[namvet]

Still there yes at least for the moment.

several of those did serve in nam