By SCOTT HARPER, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 23, 2006
Last updated: 10:32 PM
NEWPORT NEWS - The U.S. Maritime Administration conceded Wednesday that it will not meet a congressional deadline later this year for removing all junk ships from the James River Reserve Fleet, also known as the "Ghost Fleet." But officials said they are making good progress.
John Jamian , acting director of the agency, said two more unwanted vessels soon will be towed away and scrapped at salvage yards in Chesapeake and Baltimore - the 50th and 51st ships to be extracted from the reserve fleet since January 2001 .
"This is an important milestone, an important day," said U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis , R-1st District , who joined Jamian at a news conference at Fort Eustis, just off the James River, with silhouettes of the aging steel hulks in the background.
Davis has been a champion for allocating money to get rid of the obsolete ships. Most of them contain waste fuels, heavy oils, asbestos, lead, toxic PCBs and other contaminants that, if spilled, could devastate the historic James. Congress approved spending $21 million on the disposal program this year, and President Bush has asked for $26 million next year.
One of the vessels soon to leave the fleet, an experimental Navy barge known as the UEB , is being sold for $76,000 to North American Ship Recycling in Baltimore. The deal marks the first time in years that the government will be paid for a junk ship, instead of paying others to accept and scrap its toxic dinosaurs.
The other ship expected to go, the Howard W. Gilmore , a submarine tender active during World War II, will be disposed of the old way. Bay Bridge Enterprises , a salvage yard in Chesapeake, won a recycling contract from the government worth $742,265 .
One of the few World War II-era ships left in the fleet, the Gilmore is scheduled to be towed down the James to the Chesapeake yard today , the Maritime Administration said.
Once those two vessels are gone, 47 ships will be left in the Ghost Fleet awaiting the scrap heap. Another 12 ships, which could still be of use in the future, also will remain moored in the middle of the James, but they are not in line for dismantling, officials said.
Under a congressional mandate, the Maritime Administration was supposed to have safely disposed of all unwanted, obsolete ships by September . Jamian and others said they cannot meet this deadline, given past funding constraints, but expected more ships to leave in the months ahead.
There is no penalty for missing the deadline, Jamian said.
So many vessels have left since 2001 that the fleet has been reshuffled to secure lines and moorings. In addition, no more ships are located on the east side of the navigational channel in the James River; all ships now are technically located in Isle of Wight County waters, and not in Newport News, officials said.
Davis stressed that not all ships will vacate the fleet, which has been a fixture in local waters since World War I and a favorite spot for history buffs. She said newer vessels that have been drained of any remnant bunker fuels will continue to anchor off Fort Eustis, as well as crafts that the Navy or Army believe might be useful in future missions.
Reserve fleets also can be found near Beaumont, Texas, and in Suisan Bay, Calif. In all, the Maritime Administration cares for about 120 junk vessels, but the James River has hosted the oldest and most environmentally risky among the three storage sites, officials said.
Jamian stressed that the flimsiest ships with the most chance of leaking have all been removed from the James. He hoped that future disposal contracts will be helped by high steel prices, driven largely by China's appetite for cheap scrap steel.
He also did not rule out sending other ships to overseas scrap yards. One such deal, to export as many as 13 junk vessels to Britain, backfired in litigation and controversy two years ago and still has not been consummated.