By Jessica A. York/Times-Herald staff writer
Posted: 04/16/2009
Visitors to the Mare Island shipyard inspect one of its idled drydocks. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald file photo)
A company seeking to reopen part of Mare Island's former shipyard has been given a green light to sample potentially toxin-laden Mare Island Strait, after a six-month freeze.
Allied Recycling Defense -- doing business as California Dry Dock Solutions -- is hesitating to launch the testing, the first step toward dredging part of the Mare Island Strait. There also has been some disagreement whether the company can deliver on its ultimate plans.
The dredging could be only the first step in an ambitious undertaking that could create scores of new jobs focused on the dismantling of mothballed ships.
The recent testing go-ahead was given after months of haggling with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said Allied Recycling Defense executive Jay Anast. The state agency wanted a comprehensive and costly study, Anast said. Then, in recent weeks, the state's Dredge Materials Management Office OK'd the company's sampling plan, said agency member Beth Christian.
DTSC officials said last week they were unaware that Allied Recycling Defense's sampling plan was approved.
DTSC approved dredge sampling in a March 11 letter signed by department project manager Chip Gribble.
"DTSC acknowledges that this approach is an exception to established environmental investigation and remediation procedures at Mare Island," Gribble wrote. "The department, however, emphasizes that an exception in this case is necessary to advance the critical goal of facilitating local scrapping of NDRF (National Defense Reserve Fleet) surplus vessels in an environmentally sound manner."
City and company officials have said that reopening two of the island's mammoth former dry docks could provide the Vallejo area with:
* A reduction in the rotting fleet of former naval ships off Benicia's coast in Suisun Bay.
* A potential influx of up to 120 ship-related jobs, according to Allied Defense Recycling's estimates.
* The dredging of the Mare Island Strait, which has been gathering silt since the shipyard closed in 1996.
* Tax benefits to Vallejo.
Some residents have expressed concern over the potential noise and environmental pollution a reopened shipyard would produce. The company is working with island developers Lennar Mare Island and city planning staff to craft a marine-use Mare Island work plan, addressing many of these issues.
Allied Defense Recycling executives say they have moved slowly through federal, state and local permitting procedures, spending about $250,000 in what is expected to be a nearly $3 million project. Federal contracts with the Maritime Administration to break down four mothballed ships, the General John Pope, General Edwin D. Patrick, Earlham Victory and the Rider Victory cannot move forward without a facility.
Though supportive of the company's efforts, the Maritime Administration denies the existence of even pending contracts with Allied Recycling Defense, said agency spokeswoman Susan Clark.
"We have nothing pending, there's no award in the near future," Clark said this week. "A couple of years ago... we had those (ships) up for bid, but nothing went through.
"They have not completed all their permitting," she said of Allied Defense Recycling. "Until they have completed these permits, we cannot consider them a qualified contractor."
Anast disagreed, saying that the company has secured contracts for the four ships on a tentative basis, contingent on opening the shipyard. He added that he is not disturbed by Clark's assessment of the contract deals, saying it's "semantics."
"We have a contract with all the details, timing schedules ... everything you would expect in a contract," Anast said this week. "We speak to MARAD regularly, we refer to the contracts regularly, and we all have copies of the contracts."
Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at jyork@thnewsnet.com or (707) 553-6834.
