Swift action necessary

Last week´s federal court ruling that the U.S. government is liable for environmental damage caused by the mothballed fleet of military ships docked in California´s Suisun Bay should help get the process moving for the faster removal and recycling of the ships.

The ball is now in the Obama administration´s court, and it´s high time that the government committed to a timetable for removing and dismantling the ships.

Obviously the cleanup is no simple matter. It´s onerous work dry-docking the enormous vessels, cleaning the marine growth and toxic materials off of them, then towing them all the way to Brownsville, Texas via the Panama Canal for dismantling and recycling. The process is arduous and time-consuming, but it must be done, and soon.

The federal government needs to settle this matter once and for all, because if it doesn´t, the case will go to trial in June. The best way to avoid that scenario would be for the Obama administration to show its good faith by committing to spend existing cleanup funds, and to ask Congress for the additional funds needed, to remove and dismantle the ships as promptly as possible.

(Feb. 1 issue)