Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2, 2010)

June 2010 www.marinelink.com 45

Since there are no ship-scrapping yards on the Pa- cific Coast, the ships from California not only had to be towed down the coast and through the Panama

Canal to Texas, but also required intensive hull cleaning to prevent the transfer of invasive species to

Gulf waters. The budget for hull cleaning and tow- ing amounted to more than $2 million for each ship, while ship-scrapping could add another $1 million, depending on the price of steel scrap. Ships from

MARAD’S other two yards could be scrapped for half that cost, thus leaving the old ships in Califor- nia waters essentially stranded, with the state and the environmental community fuming and finally taking MARAD to court.

One of the litigants in the legal case concerning the disposal of MARAD’s Suisun Bay fleet was

California’s Water Regional Quality Control Board,

San Francisco Bay. We talked with its chief, Bruce

Wolf, who explained, “First MARAD is required to file a permit for the existing 57 ships in the fleet.

Within 120 days they must compete the cleaning of the decks of all of the ships and then clean the sides of the ships down to the waterline. The first 25 ships must be disposed by 2012 and remained of the ships by 2017.

Ship Scrapping at the former

Mare Island Navy Yard ”There is a provision in the Water Quality Control

Board’s agreement with MARAD that, if the ships could be disposed of in San Francisco Bay, they could take the ships directly to that disposal site.

Right now work is being done to reopen the old dry- docks at the Navy’s former shipyard at Mare Island, only a few miles from the site of the reserve fleet.

MARAD is supportive of that, because it would save the cost of towing the reserve fleet ships to Texas, which costs about $1 million per ship. It would cost about half as much at Mare Island. “The Water Quality Control Board actually issued a permit for re-opening the two dry-docks at Mare

Island a couple of years ago. There are four dry- docks at Mare Island, but the two in question meas- ure 88 by 680 ft and 84 by 650 ft. The present prob- lem is that, while the drydocks are functional, a lot of sediment has built up against the drydock doors.

So, now the issue is getting the dredging permits and determining where the dredge material can go.

But, there is optimism that the permits will be in place this Summer.” We talked with retired Navy

Officer Gary Whitney, who established a firm Al- lied Defense Recycling LLC to restore and operate the Mare Island Drydocks. He emphasized that, “We have asked for a dredging permit no later than 30 May with a target for dredging to start on 02 Aug.

If everything goes as planned, we should by open sometime this Summer and be operational this Fall.

Then, we will enter into negotiations with MARAD for the ship disposal program. We will also be ne- gotiating with MARAD for master ship-repair con- tracts. It is my intent to have a full service shipyard at Mare Island, probably called Mare Island Ship- yard (MISY).”

MARAD’s Marine Highway Program:

A New Market for Shipbuilders?

A spokesperson for NASSCO commented that “We are interested in the Marine Highway concept as a potential market and a means of adding an ad- ditional mode to our national transportation system.”

NASSCO has studied the concept extensively and prepared a report entitled, “A Shipbuilder’s Assess- ment of America’s Marine Highways.” That report concludes that “An economical, effective Marine

Highways network could serve as a potential new and substantial market for U.S. shipyards … through series production and by leveraging recent experience gained through international collabora- tion.”

The report calls for the removal of the Harbor

Maintenance Tax on domestic cargoes, and points to proposed vessels that could range from container- on-barge to Roll-on-Roll Off vessels, to Ro-Pax ves- sels.

For California Marine Highway Project

MARAD Awards “TIGER” Grants

Earlier this year, MARAD announced a series of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Re- covery Grants, or TIGER grants, that included $30 million for what has been termed the $69.3-million

California Green Trade Corridor/Marine Highway Project. As proposed, it would link the Port of Oak- land with the inland ports of West Sacramento and Stockton with a barge system that would reduce the present heavy highway congestion between Oakand and the inland ports. A second round of TIGER grants is expected later this year.

Mike Lukens, director of the Port of West Sacramento, commented “we first need to develop a mem- orandum of understanding between the three ports regarding the project” and noted that this initial grant is expected to be used largely for an environmental assessment and an investment in shore-side cranes and other infrastructure.

Bill Lewicki, marketing director for the Port of Stockton, noted that the Green Trade Corridor program could develop into a lot more than a barging program between the inland ports and Oakland. He com- mented that, “Right now we can barge to Portland-Seattle or to Los Angeles-Long Beach and that is where the future is looking.”

Both ports noted that the Denver-based shortline-railroad investing firm, Broe Group, had been in con- tact with them. Earlier this year, it was reported that the Broe had established a firm called Eco-Trans- port, a short-sea shipping venture that, according to its website, “moves your containers on barges between the Ports of Oakland and Stockton.” The Port of Oakland declined to comment.