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Richmond Mothball Fleet Scrapping Proposal Makes Daily Kos

Courtesy of Richmond resident Ormond Otvos, The Daily Kos, America’s most widely read political blog with hundreds of thousands of readers carried the Mothball Fleet scrapping proposal today at  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/5/14540/83422.

 

 

Action: Jobs, Pollution, Global Warming

by ormondotvos

Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 12:07:25 PM PDT

Our city councilman, Tom Butt, in Richmond California, has made a brilliant suggestion to Congress.

If you would email or write or phone your congressperson, it would give them a chance to point to an accomplishment when the elections come up.

The only opposition to this would come from Texas, and the people who own tow companies that dragged these mothballed ships from the Sacramento River PAST a restorable drydock, and then THROUGH the Panama Canal, shedding toxics the whole way.

Details under the square dots

·         ormondotvos's diary :: ::

There is a fleet of about 70 old ships currently mothballed in preservatives in Suisun Bay, just North of San Francisco on the Sacramento River.

The ships are too old to be restored now, and must be chopped into pieces in a drydock. Right now, the nearest one is in Texas, but there is an inactive drydock in Richmond, where some of the ships were built during World War II.

There is wide unemployment in Richmond, where I live, and I also volunteer restoring the Red Oak Victory at the Rosie the Riveter National Memorial Park, which wants to restore the existing drydock as part of the working display.

But there's little money for that. Tom proposes (he's very smart about this stuff) to use the money for the Toxic Tow to Texas to restore the drydock here instead, providing many jobs for the restoration, the last link in the Memorial Park, and pollution free scrapping for the Mothball Fleet.

A WIN WIN WIN.

This is a letter I wrote:

Subject: How to Scrap the Mothball Fleet

Dear concerned officials:

As a former boatyard operator and boatbuilder (Automarine Electric, Port Townsend Washington), I am very familiar with the toxic metal problem of cleaning ships, especially metal ships, which require much more toxic chemicals to keep them from rusting.

As a resident of the Iron Triangle in Richmond, and as a restoration crew volunteer on the Red Oak Victory ship in the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Tom Butt on his brilliant suggestion for a triple win in Richmond:

fill in the gaps in the Memorial with a working drydock,
employ hundreds of Richmond residents in worthwhile and necessary projects in cleaning up the environment,
remove the ongoing toxic pollution in Suisun Bay,
save the pollution costs of towing the ships to Texas, and
resolve a frustrating bureaucratic muddle in Congress,
giving an opportunity to point at an accomplishment of the Congress to point to during the oncoming election campaigns.

Please act on this at your earliest convenience, put it at the top of your action list.

Restoration, and employment, could begin immediately on the drydock, and the controversy over cleaning the ships in our Sacramento River would be defused.

Thank for in advance for your foresight.

Ormond Otvos Richmond CA

Permission to quote freely given.

Tags: Pollution, global warming, employment, history (all tags)