Just as Senator Barbara Boxer inserted language in a Coast Guard Reauthorization bill that would require a detailed study on the storage and disposal of surplus vessels, interest in the historic dry docks at Richmond’s former Shipyard 3 picked up a bit.

Visiting Richmond’s waterfront yesterday were John E. Graykowski, of Maritime Recycling Consultants and Frank J. Foti, President of Vigor Industrial, LLC, a Portland, OR, based ship building and repair company. Graykowski is the former acting administrator of the Maritime Administration under the Clinton Administration, which is the federal agency in charge of the mothball fleets.

They were looking at Richmond as a potential location not only for ship breaking but also for long-term and sustainable ship repair and even construction. The existing drydocks adjacent to a maintained 38-foot dredged ship channel are a unique combination in the Bay Area. Vallejo also has drydocks, but the channel has silted up since the Navy left, and Mare Island’s master developer, Lennar, apparently has been cool to the idea of reindustrializing the site.

Although the Port of Richmond has done much better economically lately with its partners in the automobile importation business, the job density of that business is less than one person per acre. Ship breaking and repair could add hundreds of jobs for which Richmond’s unemployed or underemployed residents could be trained.

See the following articles from the Contra Costa Times, a press release from Seantor Boxer’s Office and the previous E-FORUMs on this subject: City Council Pitches for Ship Dismantling, July 22, 2007, Local Ship Scrapping Called "Unfeasible", July 16, 2007, Revival of Historic Richmond Dry Docks for Ship Dismantling Gains Traction, July 10, 2007, Richmond Mothball Fleet Scrapping Proposal Makes Daily Kos, July 5, 2007 and  How to Scrap the Mothball Fleet (Corrected), July 5, 2007.

Companies keep mum on docks' future

·  RICHMOND: Shipbreaking companies tour 60-year-old dry docks but say it's too soon to tell if using them is feasible

By Thomas Peele

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Article Launched: 08/07/2007 03:01:55 AM PDT

Councilman Tom Butt, fourth from left, looks over a dry dock with members of the Port of Richmond...

Down concrete staircases crumbling with age, past rusted pipes and piles of trash, executives of two ship recycling companies poked around the city's long-abandoned dry docks Monday.

To the idea that a ship scrapping operation could bring the rebirth of the waterfront here, they offered a tentative, one-word answer: maybe.

"We are at the very beginning of what's possible here," said Frank Foti, chief executive of Vigor Industrial, a marine company based in Portland, Ore. "We're looking. It's too early to know anything. I am not going to talk about specifics."

Foti and others toured the World War II-era waterfront at the invitation of Councilman Tom Butt, who wants the city to lease the area to companies that could scrap U.S. Maritime Administration ships from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet there.

Any operation would be a long-term commitment that would involve ship building and repair, Foti said.

A dry-dock restoration would take a "mighty significant investment," said John E. Graykowski of International Shipbreaking Limited of Brownsville, Texas. It is exploring a partnership with Vigor in a Bay Area venture.

There are no ship scrappers on the West Coast. Aged vessels in Suisun Bay are towed to Brownsville for dismantling. Lower labor costs, the proximity of Mexican and Midwestern steel mills and less stringent environmental standards combine to make the yards the cheapest way to scrap the vessels, even when the cost of towing them nearly 6,000 miles is factored in.

The five city-owned dry docks in Richmond lack the watertight doors and pumps they would need to make them functional and then to contain toxic materials from the ships. Some of the dry docks are leased to private boat companies. Several hold barges; one houses a large, dilapidated wooden ship. Three tugboats are stored in another, as are two small World War II ships.

Still, Butt said, "These things have good bones. They need cranes, doors and pumps. This isn't daunting to me."

The primary issue for Richmond, Butt said, is job creation. The city needs jobs for low-skilled workers, like the ones that might be created by a ship-scrapping operation. Unemployment in Richmond is about 7.8 percent, compared to a countywide rate of 4.3 percent.

Sixty years ago, the Richmond waterfront was where more than 700 warships were built. The question now is whether heavy maritime industry could again provide hundreds of employment opportunities.

At issue is whether the docks could be renovated quickly enough and ship-scrapping operations permitted soon enough to assuage concerns about the pollution already posed by the Suisun fleet. The Bay Area's congressional delegation, responding to stories in the Times about pollution from the ships, is pushing for a faster scrapping schedule.

The Maritime Administration and California water regulators are at odds over a pair of environmental issues regarding the Suisun fleet: how to safely clean the underwater portions of the hulls of ships before they are towed to Texas and how to stop toxic paint from peeling off the ships into the bay, where they are now anchored.

The U.S. Coast Guard requires hull cleaning to remove marine organisms so they don't spread to areas where they are not native. If the ships were destroyed locally, the underwater hull cleaning would become a moot point.

But waiting for a Bay Area scrapping operation to be operational could mean the rotting ships stay in Suisun Bay longer.

If a scrapping operation were opened in Richmond, "it could be done in an environmentally responsible way," said Graykowski, a former Maritime Administration official. "The preferred way to do it is in dry docks."

Brownsville, however, might still remain a more cost-effective alternative.

One other Bay Area option for shipbreaking is the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, where several dry docks have doors and cranes. Gary Whitney, a maritime contractor, is attempting to start an operation there through his company, Allied Defense Recycling.

Butt said it is unclear exactly what may happen next. For the city to move forward with studies for renovations, it would likely need a firm indication of the companies' interest and a commitment of federal aid.

Reach investigative reporter Thomas Peele at 925-977-8463.

Richmond dry docks eyed for ship scrapping

By Thomas Peele

CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:08/06/2007 09:33:12 PM PDTDown concrete staircases crumbling with age, past rusted pipes, and piles of trash, executives of two ship companies poked around the city's long-abandoned dry docks Monday.

To the idea that a ship scrapping operation could bring the rebirth of the waterfront here, they offered a tentative one word answer: maybe.

"We are at the very beginning of what's possible here," said Frank Foti, chief executive of Vigor Industrial, a marine company based in Portland. "We're looking. It's too early to know anything. I am not going to talk about specifics."

Foti and others toured the World War II-era waterfront at the invitation of Councilman Tom Butt, who wants the city to lease the area to companies that could scrap U.S. Maritime Administration ships from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet there.

Any operation would be a long term commitment that would involve ship building and repair, Foti said.

A dry-dock restoration would take a "mighty significant investment," said John E. Graykowski of the International Shipbreaking Limited of Brownsville, Texas. It is exploring a partnership with Vigor in a Bay Area venture.

There are no ship scrappers on the West Coast. Aged vessels in Suisun Bay are towed to Brownsville for dismantling. Lower labor costs, the proximity of Mexican and Midwestern steel mills and less stringent environmental standards combine to make the yards the cheapest way to scrap the vessels, even when the cost of towing them nearly 6,000 miles is factored in.

The five city-owned dry docks in Richmond lack the watertight doors and pumps they would need to make them functional and then to contain toxic materials from the ships. Some of the dry docks are leased to private boat companies. Several hold barges, one houses a large, dilapidated wooden ship. Three tug boats are stored in another, as are two small World War II ships.

Still, Butt said "These things have good bones. They need cranes, doors and pumps. This isn't daunting to me."

The primary issue for Richmond, Butt said, is job creation. The city needs jobs for low-skilled workers, like the ones that might be created by a shipscrapping operation. Unemployment in Richmond is about 7.8 percent, compared to a countywide rate of 4.3 percent.

Sixty years ago, the Richmond waterfront was the site where more than 700 war ships were built. The question now is whether heavy maritime industry could again provide hundreds of employment opportunities.

At issue is whether the docks could be renovated quickly enough and ship-scrapping operations permitted soon enough to assauge concerns about the pollution the Suisun fleet already poses to local water. The Bay Area's congressional delegation, responding to stories in the Times about pollution from the ships, is pushing for a faster scrapping schedule.

The Maritime Administration and California water regulators are at odds over a pair of environmental issues regarding the Suisun fleet: how to safely clean the underwater portions of the hulls of ships before they are towed to Texas and how to stop toxic paint from peeling off the ships into the bay, where they are now anchored.

The U.S. Coast Guard requires hull cleaning to remove marine organisms so they don't spread to areas where they are not native. If the ships were destroyed locally, the underwater hull cleaning would become a moot point.

But waiting for a Bay Area scrapping operation to be operational could mean the rotting ships stay in Suisun Bay longer.

If a scrapping operation were opened in Richmond, "it could be done in an environmentally responsible way," said Graykowski, a former Maritime Administration official. "The preferred way to do it is in dry docks."

Brownsville, however, might still remain a more cost-effective alternative.

One other Bay Area option for shipbreaking is the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, where several dry docks have doors and cranes. Gary Whitney, a maritime contractor, is attempting to start an operation there through his company, Allied Defense Recycling.

Butt said it is unclear exactly what may happen next. For the city to move forward with studies for renovations, it would likely need a firm indication of the companies' interest and a commitment of federal aid.

Reach investigative reporter Thomas Peele at 925-977-8463.

 For Immediate Release Contact:   Natalie Ravitz or or David Frey

August 2,2 007

(202) 224-8120

 COMMERCE COMMITTEE PASSES COAST GUARD REAUTHORIZATION BILL, INCLUDING BOXER PROVISION ON SUISUN BAY

Legislation requires an environmentally sound plan for storing and disposing of “mothballed” World War II vessels

 Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee today passed the Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill, including language by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that addresses her concerns about “mothballed” World War II vessels rotting in the Suisun Bay.

  Boxer said, “I want to see these rotting ships moved out of the Bay, but first we need to make certain that we don’t cause more environmental damage in the process.  This language will help ensure that we are moving forward in the most efficient, environmentally safe, and cost-effective manner possible.  I want to thank the Senate Commerce Committee and in particular, Senator Maria Cantwell, for working with me to address this important issue in a way that respects environmental laws.”

 The language included by Senator Boxer in the Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill states that within 30 days after enactment, the Secretary of Transportation must convene a working group, including senior representatives of MARAD, the Coast Guard, EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Navy, to review and make recommendations on environmental practices for the storage and disposal of the vessels. 

 The language also states that within 90 days after enactment, the Secretary of Transportation must submit a plan to the Senate Commerce and EPW Committees, as well as the House Armed Services Committee, on how to improve storage and disposal of the vessels in an environmentally sensitive way.  Finally, the bill requires that the relevant federal agencies implement a disposal plan that is in accord with both federal and state laws. 

 There are currently 73 deteriorating National Defense Reserve Fleet vessels that have been rotting in Suisun Bay, California since the end of World War II.  More than two-thirds of those vessels are beyond repair and awaiting disposal at sites around the country.  Before MARAD can transfer the ships to the recycling facilities, the Coast Guard requires that the hulls be cleaned of any organic matter to ensure no invasive species are transported to other waters.  Unfortunately, during this cleaning process, toxic paint flakes off the ships into the water, posing a serious health and environmental risk to Suisun Bay and the surrounding community.