The battleship USS Iowa, which has been sitting in a “mothball fleet” in a bay east of San Francisco since 2001, will escape the scrap heap.
The U.S. Maritime Administration this week agreed to remove most of the decrepit collection of military vessels dating back to World War II.
The gray and rust-red ships, some with their hulls flaked with peeling paint, are anchored in rows in Suisun Bay, a shallow estuary between San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Studies by the administration have suggested the old warships have dumped more than 20 tons of copper, lead, zinc and other metals into the estuary, a critical habitat for a number of endangered species.
“We are moving expeditiously to remove the worst polluting ships first and diligently moving to clean the rest,” said David Matsuda, acting administrator of the maritime administration, adding that, in all, 52 ships eventually will be recycled at various maritime administration yards.
The federal agency plans to keep more than a dozen of the ships anchored in the bay including the iconic battleship USS Iowa that are in better shape or still considered useful.
Plans have been discussed to turn the USS Iowa into a floating museum, but the Defense Department wants the option of recommissioning it into active service if it is needed.
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