Ghost ships

[Goldie fish]

21:57) The British Government has decided that two former US Navy ships contaminated with chemicals will have to return to America.

The Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said the ships would be temporarily stored at Hartlepool before going back across the Atlantic, because it was the safest option.

They were due to be dismantled at the port.


A decision on two other ships currently bound for the UK, which make up the controversial so-called 'ghost' fleet, has yet to be made.

The first two ships in the 13-strong convoy today passed within 200 miles of the Irish coast, south of Cork.

The Minister for the Marine, Dermot Ahern, was to raise the Government's objections to the convoy with the British Ambassador at a meeting next week.

Click here to watch the report

[John]

Watching Channel 4 news a few days ago I saw that they got one of their reporters on board the CASA sortie that eyeballed those ships out in the Atlantic.

A very interesting bit.

Anyone else see it?

[yellowjacket]

Why was Dermot Ahern protesting about them passing within 200miles of the Irish Coast?
It's not as if they're carring unstable nuclear warheads. I'm sure if he looked in his own constituency he'd find facilities with higher amounts of toxic materials.

Grandstanding to establish some "Green" credibility?

[Stoker]

"Toxic Ships"

What was Dermot Ahern on about? Every Oil tanker, Gas carrier,Fishing boat,and even some old warships that come in to our ports have a lot more "toxic" content than these old USN transports.They have no fuel or lub oils, even the fridge systems have been drained of gas,they have a few bits of plastic and a lot of asbestos (probably not as much asbestos as would be found in the basement of Leinster House where the pipe runs are longer).
The real problem with ship breaking is that they are cut up using oxy-acetylene torches which when they burn through plastic and bakelite give off god knows what toxic gasses, but that's at the breakers yard not as they pass 200 miles off our coast.
Some one must be setting him up!

[Film Guy]

What night was that Channel 4 flight on John? I'm always on the look out for film of the casa for a film I'm doing

[Farel']

If they made it all the way accross the atlantic without any mishap, and now they are sending them back again,then surely they are not the rustbuckets they are being reported as? When the minesweepers were being mothballed prior to scrapping,and dierdre was undergoing her final refit,there was a major panic when workers begun to remove the asbestos insulation,so often found aboard ships built in the 40s,50s and 60s. Indeed it is more likely that everything hazardous that could be removed from these ships,down to the freon in the refrigeration and air conditioning system,has been removed before they went anywhere.

There was far worse being dumped off the Cork and Dublin coasts up to recently. Does anyone remember the ship which used to bring dublins raw sewerage out to sea to be dumped? Didnt hear any complaints about that...

[John]

Originally posted by Film Guy
What night was that Channel 4 flight on John? I'm always on the look out for film of the casa for a film I'm doing

I reckon it must have been the 7th of November. I found the same footage on an RTE report. I imagine they loaded up the plane with an RTE journalist and cameraman plus the Channel Four guy and shared footage.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1107/6news/6news56_9a.smil

[Goldie fish]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...114170,00.html

SHIPS LICENCE IS REVOKED

A High Court judge has ruled that ships from the so-called US navy "ghost fleet" cannot be broken up in the Britain.
The judge said the licence allowing the toxic vessels to be dismantled by Able UK on Teesside "cannot stand".
The decision was a victory for the environmental group, Friends of the Earth, which claims the ships are a health and safety hazard.

The waste management licence was granted to Able UK by the Environment Agency.
But at the High Court in London the agency agreed with FoE its decision was fatally flawed.
Mr Justice Sullivan said: "This defendant (the Environment Agency) is correct to concede its decision cannot stand."
Able UK will now have to apply for a new licence, which will involve a full environmental assessment, if it still wants to dispose of the ships.

The vessels are between 40 and 50 years old and contaminated with chemicals including PCBs, asbestos and heavy diesel.
Able UK, which has a contract to dismantle 13 ships, says it has the technical expertise to do the job safely.
Four vessels have already arrived in Britain and are docked in Hartpool after it was decided it was too dangerous to send them back to America.

The other nine have been prevented from leaving the US.