Environmentalists, water regulators concerned by fleet decision

Water-quality officials expressed concern, environmentalists dismay on Friday following the Bush administration's abrupt decision to move full-steam ahead with the breaking up of old warships rotting in California's "mothball fleet."

The federal Maritime Administration announced Thursday that it would next month lift its moratorium on disposing of the ships. More than 50 are rusting in limbo northeast of San Francisco, a collection of troop transports, tankers and other vessels.

Such a step would set in motion the towing of some vessels from Suisun Bay, a shallow estuary, to the former Naval Air Station Alameda, where the warships would be scrubbed of sea life before being hauled to a ship-breaking facility in Texas.

That scrubbing causes toxic paint to flake off into the water, and that is what worries environmentalists and state water-quality regulators.

"It looks like they're using San Francisco Bay waters as a dumping ground," said Michael Wall, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council who has followed the issue.

"The Maritime Administration seems to be the one agency that is most committed to ignoring the nation's environmental regulations," said Saul Bloom, executive director of Arc Ecology, a San Francisco environmental group working to make the ghost warships disappear.
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