BENICIA
-- Aged and crumbling ships may be leaving the Suisun Bay "mothball"
Reserve Fleet at a steady pace, but some of their value is being left behind.
Vallejo's
California Maritime Academy, one of six state maritime schools nationwide, soon
will see a nearly $400,000 funding influx, proceeds from the sale of the
obsolete vessels. The new funding, $2.2 million overall, is due to a federal
mandate requiring federal reinvestment into maritime schools.
"This
money will help us continue to train the next generation of merchant
mariners," U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said at a news
conference Friday morning at Suisun Bay's National Defense Reserve Fleet.
"As you know, the maritime industry is critical to our nation's economy
and security. ... Our maritime investments represent the future of American
transportation."
LaHood,
who Thursday toured the Cal Maritime campus and met with its new top
administrator, on Friday described shipping as the "green ticket to a more
environmentally friendly infrastructure" as the country's population
continues to swell.
Just
a bit up the strait from the fleet, Mare Island's Allied Defense Recycling
shipyard has worked since 2010 to eke out a corner of the ship-recycling trade
in a primarily Texas-dominated business. However, once scrap metal prices began
to climb, the government turned from paying recyclers to take the ships off
their hands to selling the vessels for millions of dollars.
The
shift largely shut Allied Defense Recycling out of the game, beyond dry dock
cleaning the vessels before their final voyages to Texas. Recently announced
upcoming contracts for three added ship cleanings will go to competitor
shipyard San Francisco Ship Repair BAE Systems, with the vessels themselves
sold to Texas recycler Esco Marine.
Steel
scrap metal prices "have been fairly high as of late, so that's very
helpful to us," Matsuda said. "It's fantastic when we do well in the
market and are actually able to turn profit, or at least get money back that we
can further invest."
Regardless
of which of eight qualified companies nationwide is securing the contracts, the
Maritime Administration, and indirectly, Cal Maritime, are benefiting, not to
mention Bay Area environmentalists concerned with potential pollution from the
aged vessels.
In
fact, Maritime Administrator David Matsuda, joined by Congressmen George
Miller, D-Martinez, and Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, announced that the federal
agency was two years ahead of a schedule imposed in a 2010 lawsuit settlement
between the agency, and environmental advocates and the San Francisco Bay Area
Water Quality Control Board. The agreement requires that the fleet's stockpile
of 57 obsolete vessels be removed for recycling by 2017, with ships trickling
out of the fleet continuously for the past three years. Gone already are 36
vessels, Matsuda said.
"There's
a limit to how quickly we can move these ships out, so we have to take better
care of the ones when they're already here," Matsuda said, noting the more
than 300 tons of loose exfoliating paint that have been swept from the ships
since 2009.
Suisun
Bay is one of three National Defense Reserve Fleets, including one in Texas and
the other in Virginia.
"Suisun
Bay will be a shining example of the progress we can make when we work
together," LaHood said.
Upcoming
Suisun Bay fleet ship departures for recycling by Texas-based Esco Marine
include the SS Cimarron on Oct. 31, the SS Wabash on Nov. 13, and the SS
Roanoke on Nov. 20. The vessels were sold to the recycler for about $992,000,
$2 million and $1.9 million, respectively.
Source:
mercury news. By Jessica A York. 12 October 2012
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_21762175/maritime-administration-two-years-ahead-schedule-scrapping-mothball
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