by RCRVRP » January 18, 2022, 8:35 am
Cleaning it may have to do with removing marine growth so that growth doesn't contaminate other waters and also it may have toxic antifoul paint on it that needs to be removed in a dry dock.
This info below pertains to scrapping of another carrier years ago.
"The Navy is scraping the hull of a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard just outside of Bremerton. The goal is to prevent potentially invasive species from traveling with the ship when it’s towed to Texas to be dismantled.
But the Environmental Protection Agency and others are concerned the scraping itself could be causing environmental harm. That's because the hull of the ex-U.S.S. Independence is covered with copper-based paint, which Navy divers will be scraping underwater. Copper can be toxic to salmon and other marine life.
“We’ve expressed our concerns to the Navy about the potential impact on both the Puget Sound and the Superfund site there, since the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is a Superfund site,” says Mark MacIntyre, an EPA spokesperson. “And so we’ve asked the Navy to develop a more robust monitoring plan to address these concerns and to share that plan with us.”
Washington State requires ships with copper-based paint to be dry-docked before their hulls can be scraped, but the state does not have the authority to force the Navy to comply."
Cleaning it may have to do with removing marine growth so that growth doesn't contaminate other waters and also it may have toxic antifoul paint on it that needs to be removed in a dry dock.
This info below pertains to scrapping of another carrier years ago.
"The Navy is scraping the hull of a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard just outside of Bremerton. The goal is to prevent potentially invasive species from traveling with the ship when it’s towed to Texas to be dismantled.
But the Environmental Protection Agency and others are concerned the scraping itself could be causing environmental harm. That's because the hull of the ex-U.S.S. Independence is covered with copper-based paint, which Navy divers will be scraping underwater. Copper can be toxic to salmon and other marine life.
“We’ve expressed our concerns to the Navy about the potential impact on both the Puget Sound and the Superfund site there, since the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is a Superfund site,” says Mark MacIntyre, an EPA spokesperson. “And so we’ve asked the Navy to develop a more robust monitoring plan to address these concerns and to share that plan with us.”
Washington State requires ships with copper-based paint to be dry-docked before their hulls can be scraped, but the state does not have the authority to force the Navy to comply."