Aug. 21, 2004, 6:11PM
Toxins on aircraft carrier delay its future as a reef
High PCB levels found after deck was stripped from the USS Oriskany
By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press
SINKING THE ORISKANY
• Storied past: The USS Oriskany, which saw combat in Korea and Vietnam, is being prepared in Corpus Christi for eventual sinking in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Record-making future: The carrier would be the largest ship ever sunk to create an artificial reef.
PENSACOLA, FLA. - The USS Oriskany's wooden flight deck is being removed because of PCB contamination, but other issues involving the toxic material must yet be resolved before the retired aircraft carrier can be sunk as an artificial reef, a Navy spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The Navy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state officials met last week in Atlanta to begin that process.
The 888-foot ship would be the largest vessel ever purposely sunk as a reef.
Questions raised by EPA officials have indefinitely delayed plans to sink the carrier in the Gulf of Mexico about 25 miles off Pensacola Pass, said Pat Dolan of the Naval Sea Systems Command.
"We're committed to working with them," Dolan said.
The Oriskany, a combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, had been scheduled to arrive in Pensacola by Aug. 10 to begin final preparations for sinking, but it remains in Corpus Christi, where potential environmental hazards are being removed.
The flight deck was added to that list when a tar-like coating was stripped off and tests disclosed a higher level of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, than expected underneath, Dolan said.
The substance has been linked to cancer and other illnesses.
The EPA has been asked for a risk-based disposal permit that would let the Navy sink the ship without removing all solid PCBs.
A Navy study indicates solid PCBs aboard the USS Vermillion, a Navy cargo ship sunk as a reef off South Carolina in 1988, have caused no harm to people or sea life, but the EPA has questioned those findings.The Navy is developing a response, Dolan said.
Retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman, an Oriskany reef booster in Pensacola, said he is confident the issue can be resolved in a matter of weeks. Even so, the sinking may have to be delayed until November or later because of the threat of hurricanes, said Fetterman, president and CEO of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation.
The Navy selected Pensacola over sites proposed by Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina in part because Pensacola Naval Air Station has had a key role in naval flight history.