Concerns are being raised about the final stop for a storied
former U.S. Coast Guard vessel sent from Suisun Bay's "mothball
fleet" to Mexico for scrapping last month.
Environmental concerns related to ships in the federal
government's Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet have been an ongoing issue for years,
often boiling down to a battle between federal officials and environmental
agencies.
The latest scuffle includes an emerging third party --
historical preservationists vying to rescue some of those ships from metal
scrapping.
Last month, one such battle came to a head. Officials
working for years to persuade federal officials to hand over the retired U.S.
Coast Guard ice cutter Storis to a nonprofit to serve as a museum ship were
shocked first when the vessel was auctioned off by the federal General Services
Administration this summer, then towed to Mexico. A spokeswoman for the GSA
could not be reached for comment.
At the urging of interested parties, the Environmental
Protection Agency has launched an investigation into whether the Storis may
contain toxin levels illegally high for foreign export, officials confirmed
Wednesday.
The Storis -- used for decades for law enforcement, search
and rescue and fisheries work in Alaska -- was sold to San Diego-based U.S.
Metals Recovery LLC on June 28 for $70,100. There was an initial requirement
that the vessel be removed from the Suisun Bay Reserve "Mothball"
Fleet by July 12.
"On Oct. 21, EPA received information that the Storis
was potentially being exported by U.S. Metals Recovery to Mexico for scrapping
and that the ship could contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in
concentrations greater than or equal to 50 parts per million," a
spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in an emailed
statement. "EPA immediately began investigating to determine if the vessel
contained PCBs, and if so, at what level. This investigation remains
ongoing."
The ship has called the federally managed Suisun Bay fleet
home since its 2007 retirement from the Coast Guard.
Jon Ottman, a Michigan marine historian and consultant
working with Storis Museum and Education Center officials, raised concerns that
U.S. Metals Recovery seems to have no physical presence -- website, office
phone or physical location -- to which to bring complaints about the
out-of-country delivery.
He added that a man associated with U.S. Metals Recovery and
the sale, Mark Jurisich, allegedly asked nonprofit Storis Museum officials for
$250,000 to sell the vessel instead of scrapping it. Efforts to reach Jurisich
were unsuccessful.
Before the auction in June, volunteers looking to preserve
the Storis initially planned to bring the vessel to Juneau, Alaska, where it
had spent much of its career, and to become a museum ship and train young Sea
Cadets.
Later, an effort from Toledo, Ohio, where the vessel was
built, took the lead. Also in the running for the ship were the California
Ships to Reefs group. It wanted to have the vessel sunk and used as an
artificial reef when word came that the bidding process did not result in a
buyer reaching a minimum-set bid price.
The Storis "made history in 1957 when it led two other
Coast Guard cutters through icy waters near the North Pole and into the
Atlantic Ocean," and "became the first American vessel to
circumnavigate the North American continent," according to Bay Area News
Group articles written about the ship upon its retirement.
In 2012, the Storis was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places with the help of a nomination penned by Ottman. The nomination
notes that the Storis is one of the last remaining vessels that participated in
the World War II Greenland Patrols.
Source: inside bay area.
1 November 2013
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