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The USS Oriskany prepares for last tour
by Melissa ShermanThe ragged outline of the “Mighty O” casts a shadow on the Port of Pensacola where the 888-foot aircraft carrier docks today before setting out on its final mission as the world's largest artificial reef.
The USS Oriskany, commissioned in 1950, will be the first ship to be sunk under the 2004 National Defense Authorization Act as an artificial reef.
A date has yet to be determined for sinking the Oriskany, but the ship will be scuttled 22.5 miles southeast of Pensacola , Fla. in 212 feet of water hopefully after the next hurricane season. The anticipated sinking date changed, due to the Jan. 7 death of a key scientist who was developing a simulation model for the long and short-term effects of the ship's PCBs.
Dave Robau, an environmental scientist with Science Applications International Corporation, spoke of the advantages the Oriskany will offer to Pensacola 's wildlife and economy.
“The reef will provide great habitat for many fish and invertebrates in our local waters,” Robau said, “Officials expect that the Oriskany will add over $100 million to our local economy, mainly to diving and fishing boat businesses.”
Robau also handles media relations for UWF's Student Environmental Action Society that researched the Navy's latest routine of sinking aircraft carriers off the West Coast.
It found cost effectiveness for the Navy to sink its ships rather than striping each one at a disposal yard. This program also offers the Navy another alternative to reduce the environmental risk of its ships from sensitive waterways.
“There are roughly 400 ships the Navy has in Virginia that are just sitting there,” Gene Ferguson of Scuba Shack Wet Dream Charters said, “It's costing nearly $20 thousand a year to keep each decommissioned ship afloat.”
The Oriskany's service spanned 26 years before being decommissioned in September 1976. During its operations in Vietnam it launched roughly 20 thousand combat planes, but several pilots were shot down, including U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Navy are proceeding with the final steps of the 11 month process compliant with the polychlorinated biphenyl removal and disposal permit.
The wooden flight deck of the Oriskany was found to be contaminated with high levels of PCBs and was stripped along with electrical cable insulation, friable asbestos and batteries containing lead and mercury, officials said.
“The EPA finds that PCBs, an industrial compound, are known to cause cancer in animals,” Robau said, “Also, high levels of mercury can cause adverse effects to marine organisms.”
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