Cleaning Up the Ghost Fleet of Suisun Bay

Victory! Federal Court Rules that Ghost Fleet is Illegally Polluting the Bay

January 21 – A federal court ruled in favor of Baykeeper's lawsuit to clean up the Ghost Fleet of Suisun Bay, declaring that the Maritime Administration (MARAD), the federal agency responsible for the fleet, is illegally polluting the Bay and illegally storing hazardous waste. Baykeeper – along with Arc Ecology and Natural Resources Defense Council, and later the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board – sued to end the discharge of toxic heavy metals and to force the cleanup of these deteriorating vessels.

Read the full judicial opinion (pdf).

More than fifty decommissioned and deteriorating vessels are anchored in Suisun Bay, leaching toxic paint and heavy metals into the water and sediment of the Bay. An estimated 20 tons of heavy metals – including lead, zinc, copper and cadmium – have already fallen, blown or washed off the ships into the water, according to a MARAD-commissioned analysis. Projections indicate that the ships would have lost an additional 50 tons of heavy metals to San Francisco Bay in future years as the vessels’ condition deteriorated further.

Internal communications and testimony obtained by the environmental groups through the lawsuit show that MARAD knew about the problem for more than a decade. Yet the agency never stopped the illegal pollution, and repeatedly ignored several acts of Congress requiring disposal of the ships.

The case is poised to go to trial on June 8, 2010 to determine the scope of the clean-up and removal measures. The plaintiffs are seeking removal of the peeling, toxic paint and permanent disposal of all the ships. In response to the litigation, MARAD recently removed two ships to be scrapped and has begun removing some of the peeled paint from remaining ships. Most of the ships and pollution remain.

Floating Toxic Waste Dumps

A February 2007 report commissioned to assess the environmental impact of the ghost fleet revealed that the ships are a significant source of pollution. The paint on these ships is highly toxic, containing barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury and zinc. Already, at least 18 tons of the pollutants on the ships has fallen into the Bay. Pollutants in the sediment directly below the vessels were found to be in concentrations that exceed California’s hazardous waste toxicity criteria and in levels high enough for sediment-dwelling creatures to consume the toxins, which introduces them to the food chain of the Bay.

Suisun Bay, located in northern San Francisco Bay near the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is critical habitat for several species of endangered fish, including Chinook salmon and Delta smelt. The State of California has warned residents to limit consumption of fish caught in Suisun Bay due to pollution.

How the Ghost Fleet Came To Be

The ships in the ghost fleet were decommissioned and placed in “storage” in Suisun Bay after World War II and the Korean War with the idea that they could be reactivated for wartime use. The vessels are no longer seaworthy, however, and Suisun Bay has become a junkyard for these ships: water must be pumped from them regularly to keep them afloat, they leak fuel, and most are severely rusted and are peeling toxic paint. The ghost fleet does not belong in Suisun Bay anymore – it’s been haunting our waters for far too long!