Text of Letter to Members of Congress on Suspension of New Recycling Contracts

The Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, P.L. 106-398, §3502, 114Stat. 1654 (2000) required the Maritime Administration to dispose of all vessels in the National Defense Reserve Fleet by September 30, 2006, that were not assigned to the Ready Reserve Force or otherwise designated for a specific purpose.  The Maritime Administration continues to be committed to carrying out Congress’ mandate to dispose of all non-retention merchant vessels in Maritime Administration’s custody.  We believe that recycling these vessels remains the most responsible course of action, both environmentally and fiscally.  Recycling permanently and efficiently removes these deteriorating vessels and their contents as a threat to the environment.   

Withstanding the impact of environmental restrictions reported to Congress in 2002 and later, the Maritime Administration, both as custodian of the National Defense Reserve Fleet and as the designated disposal agent for all Government merchant-type vessels, has removed 85 ships from our fleet sites since 2001.  Twenty-five were removed for disposal in FY ’06 alone.  However, additional challenges posed by external impediments confronted our ship disposal program in FY 2006 and those new issues increasingly constrain the Maritime Administration’s ability to cost-effectively expedite disposal of obsolete ships. 

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of obstacles encountered in the last few months that have brought the Maritime Administration’s vessel recycling program to a standstill.  Most of the vessels that the Maritime Administration recycles have remained at their mooring sites for a number of years and accumulated marine growth on their hulls.  As a condition for issuing the towing permits to take these vessels to various domestic recycling facilities, the Coast Guard requires the Maritime Administration to remove this hull fouling marine growth from these non-operating vessels.  For a time, this removal requirement was accomplished by Maritime Administration arrangement to lightly clean or scamp the hulls of the vessels to be towed.  This removed a significant amount of the accumulated bio-matter.  State officials in California have now opposed scamping any vessels in their waters.  State officials in Texas have recently stated that they oppose scamping vessels from other States in their waters.  Officials in the National Marine Fisheries Service have also expressed concerns about scamping.  These concerns raise significant issues and precedents for the Maritime Administration, the Federal Government, and the maritime industry.

As a result of these expressions of concern, the practical problem of accommodating these various interests, and the need to address these matters with due deliberation, I have for the time being suspended the issuance of any further contracts for vessel recycling.  These instructions will remain in place until accommodation of these competing interests can be achieved. 

I take this action reluctantly because we at the Maritime Administration believe that, in balance, the best environmental interests of the United States are served by recycling of these vessels as rapidly as possible.  In considering this matter, we note that the Maritime Administration has been recycling vessels in Texas and other parts of the United States for decades.  To the best of our knowledge, only the Maritime Administration is being required to scamp non-operating vessels before they are towed from one geographic area to another for recycling.

We recognize that suspension adversely affects the disposal rate of our obsolete ships and the several private sector recycling firms that dispose of our ships.  However, given the problems the Maritime Administration has encountered, we feel that this suspension is the only approach possible in the face of a policy and regulatory situation that is making the Maritime Administration’s domestic ship disposal program a practical impossibility.

The Maritime Administration will continue to keep you and the Congress informed of our progress with hull cleaning and vessel recycling issues.  Should you feel it appropriate, we remain available to meet to give you and your staff a more in depth briefing.                                     

                                                                                                Sincerely yours,

                                                                                                Sean T. Connaughton

                                                                                                Maritime Administrator