Green angels?

Not to cast a pall on Navy Week or anything, which culminates in Rochester with the upcoming performances of the Navy’s Blue Angels aerial team, but environmentalists are calling on Navy to green up.

The Basel Action Network, which works against improper disposal waste disposal around the world, has filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking it to halt the Navy’s SINKEX program.

SINKEX sinking, 1988

This program provides target practice for Navy pilots and gunners while cheaply and conveniently doing away with the targets - decommissioned ships. The Seattle-based environmental group says this pollutes the seas with toxic materials, and that the vessels should be dismantled in an environmentally sound way.

BAN is especially angry because the Navy wants to bring SINKEX to the Gulf of Alaska, a major fishing ground. The program is not, as far as we can tell, extended to Lake Ontario.

Source: By Steve Orr • 15 July 2011

http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/520/2011/07/15/green-angels/