"Ghost Fleet" Heading for Mexico and Turkey

Published Jul 28, 2005 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. Maritime Administration must scrap some 77 decommissioned Navy ships by September, 2006. One holdup is the cost, and another involves environmental rules.

If the ships are scrapped overseas, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have to waive federal laws that forbid exporting hazardous waste. The money-strapped U.S. Maritime Administration has been struggling to rid fleets of languishing ships in Virginia, Texas, and California by a September, 2006 deadline set by Congress. The Texas and California reserves total 77 ships.

Environmental Recycling Systems, a shipyard in Aliaga, Turkey, posed scrapping the ships in yards in Turkey and Mexico. Dismantling the ships in developing countries is cheaper, because of lower labor costs and high demand for scrapped materials.

Denny Vaughan, ERS senior partner, says that their shipyards shouldn't be compared to those in India and Bangladesh, which have been shown to have deplorable conditions. ERS workers wear protective clothing, and conform to EPA standards.

The Turkey ? Mexico plan has been in the works for almost two years.