Remembering our nation's heroes this Memorial Day...and STORIS, too.

USS STORIS, CG (WAGL-38) during WWII while assigned to the Greenland Patrols

This Memorial Day weekend, we want to pay tribute to the memory of all of the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services who have made the supreme sacrifice for our country. Bless you all. No words are fully adequate to thank you and your families for your service and sacrifice. We will pause to remember you this weekend.

We also recognize this Memorial Day as the first in over 70 years that there is no more STORIS. Her memory and legacy will live on in the hearts and memories of all who served and cared about her. STORIS will never be forgotten even as she was forsaken by the very government that she and her crews so faithfully served over six decades.

Ex-ACUSHNET relisted on Ebay

The former USCGC ACUSHNET is back on Ebay. Now the price has dropped from $10 million to $1.1 million and the seller is demonstrating some desperate motivation in his verbiage about selling the ship ASAP.

I would certainly hate to see her lost like STORIS. This is sickening that the government allowed her to be put in this situation. We already know what the Coast Guard, GSA, EPA and MARAD teamed up to do with STORIS. Coast Guard and GSA get the blame for ACUSHNET. Ignored her history and disposed of her illegally through GSA instead of MARAD as required by federal law. It's doubtful that she is truly "PCB-free" as described by the Coast Guard.

There aren't very many of these classic warriors around to save anymore.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/213-6-FT-MILITARY-GRADE-CUTTER-/111356202067?forcerrptr=true&hash=item19ed58cc53&item=111356202067&pt=Power_Motorboats

The "Ask the Seller" section speaks volumes about the travesty about this situation. These crazy, hair-brained suggestions about using her for the set of a horror movie or as an oil-drilling ship only reinforce a total lack of understanding and respect for ACUSHNET and the potential for destruction for the ship's physical and historic integrity. 

This is a ship that is easily eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and likely a National Historic Landmark, but she has to stay intact for this eligibility to continue. ACUSHNET has a historic pedigree second only to STORIS and STORIS is now gone. Again, thank you U.S. Federal Government.

http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ShowAllQuestions&iid=111356202067&requested=odfic&redirect=0&frm=2047675&ShowASQAlways=1&ssPageName=PageAskSellerQuestion_VI

Also, although she served in Alaska, she is NOT ice-rated. According to an ACUSHNET vet's posting on that FB page, that was one of the reasons why so much money was poured into ACUSHNET in 2008 after she threw a wheel. Someone from Alaska's Congressional delegation wanted the ship to stay in service for a couple more years because there was no immediate replacement coming and whoever it was thought ACUSHNET had the same ice capabilities that STORIS did, which she most certainly does not.

Appeal submitted to EPA for April 16 FOIA release

The appeal for the April 16 FOIA release from the EPA has been submitted. 

The appeal is posted here: http://goo.gl/EQJFDH

There are known documents that were not released in the FOIA request. There are also several key questions related to the disposition of the ship's electrical system. EPA claimed in the April 15 release that there were no import permits for the wiring to come back into the U.S. yet a reporter I spoke to said that she was told by the Mexican government that the electrical system was being sent back to the U.S. for recycling. Why would the most valuable part of the ship be sent back to the U.S. unless there was some kind of contamination such as the PCBs that we strongly suspected were there?

The appeal also requests the release of the redacted and withheld documents EPA kept back. If they didn't do anything wrong, why keep the documents back? The executive deliberation privilege also has to be justified in withholding documents, so EPA has to do that, as well.

110-foot WPB for sale through GSA. Where will she go?

Another cutter is for sale through GSA. This time, the tonnage of the 110-foot BAINBRIDGE ISLAND (WPB-1343) correctly falls under disposal through GSA. It's also unlikely that there are hazardous materials on board because of the build date. As this is posted, the price is already $100K, $30K more than what STORIS sold for in June 2013. STORIS was in excellent condition and while not as fast, had much more capability than this 110.

STORIS' displacement made her disposal legally mandated through MARAD, not GSA. She also likely contained hazardous materials that would have made her disposal and sale from the Coast Guard illegal, as well as her export. As a U.S. military ship, STORIS should not have been exported for scrapping. In the end, GSA practically gave STORIS away to be illegally exported for scrapping in Mexico. For what GSA received as a pittance for payment, STORIS could have been donated to the STORIS Museum and Last Patrol Museum to reap cultural and economic benefits far beyond what the government received.


The Coast Guard refers to aspects of BAINBRIDGE ISLAND as historic. While she did start  her career as the first cutter to have a minority female as CO (now Capt. Katherine Favery Tiongson), BAINBRIDGE ISLAND is not eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as she is less than 50 years old and is not otherwise exceptional in construction or accomplishment to justify listing on the Register.


STORIS was listed as nationally significant on the National Register of Historic Places.


Despite having two viable nonprofits seeking custody of STORIS for preservation and use as an active museum/training vessel, the Federal Government sold STORIS at auction for a mere $70,100 to a so-called "metals recycling" firm that spent the rest of the summer of 2013 unsuccessfully trying to extort from the nonprofits up to five times what was paid for the ship. The buyer, U.S. Metals Recycling of San Diego, did not have the necessary facilities to scrap the ship domestically and had to resort to illegally exporting the ship to Mexico in order to make what could only have been a razor-thin profit by taking advantage of lower labor costs and lax environmental regulation in Mexico.



Where will BAINBRIDGE ISLAND go? Will this U.S. military ship go to scrap overseas in violation of Section 3502 of the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act? Will the U.S. Government again break the law they put in place to prevent our American military ships from going to lesser-developed countries for breaking?

gCaptain op-ed piece discusses shipbreaking, STORIS export

The illegal export of STORIS and the complicity of the four federal agencies responsible -- USCG, GSA, EPA and MARAD -- are discussed again in an editorial written by Denise Rucker Krepp and published by gCaptain. The comments mirror those delivered at the MARAD symposium last week in regard to foreign shipbreaking.


http://gcaptain.com/support-u-s-shipbreaking-human-rights/

Former chief counsel again comments on STORIS export at MARAD symposium

On Tuesday, May 6, the U.S. Maritime Administration held an event called National Maritime Strategy Symposium II. This was held at the U.S. DOT Headquarters.

The purpose of the public MARAD/MTSNAC meeting was to identify domestic maritime opportunities that can be incorporated into a National Maritime Strategy to guide public and private Marine Transportation activities into the future. The results of this second symposium will be considered along with those from the January 2014 symposium to help shape the National Maritime Strategy being developed by MARAD.

A description of the event, it’s goals and discussion points is here: http://www.maritimesecurityoutlook.com/index.php/eandt/candt/71-maradsymposium

At the Tuesday MARAD symposium, former MARAD Chief Counsel Denise Rucker Krepp addressed issues related to shipbreaking, including the deplorable conditions in overseas scrapyards like the operations at Bangladesh, profiled in the May issue of National Geographic magazine, the posts of which were shared here on April 23.

And once again, as she did at the March 12 U.S. Coast Guard Shipping Coordinating Committee Meeting, Ms. Krepp spoke of the illegal sale and export of STORIS for breaking in a Mexican shipyard. This was discussed within the context of ensuring that U.S.-flagged vessels are responsibly dismantled and recycled in U.S. facilities. This protocol helps guarantee that hazardous materials are properly contained and disposed of following the high standards established through U.S. Federal Law rather than being exported to a lesser-developed country with less effective environmental regulation. It also ensures that the associated jobs that are created through the domestic scrapping programs aren’t outsourced to foreign scrapping facilities like those in Bangladesh, where worker and environmental safety considerations are nil. U.S. ships are commonly reflagged to facilitate this kind of export. There is no indication that STORIS was reflagged for export, but as a U.S. government vessel, there are other considerations.

For the sake of brevity, Ms. Krepp’s comments and context regarding STORIS are as follows:

“…The U.S. domestic recycling facility encourages MARAD to promote the use of domestic recycling facilities in lieu of those in Bangladesh and similar countries. U.S government vessels should be scrapped in the U.S. It's the law. Section 3502 of the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act requires all U.S. government vessels to be scrapped at U.S. metal recycling facilities. See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-110publ417/pdf/PLAW-110publ417.pdf.

Sadly, the law isn't being followed consistently. Last fall, the General Services Administration allowed the USCG STORIS to be exported from the Suisun Bay fleet to Mexico for scrapping. FOIA’d documents since released, show that despite warnings to the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration (GSA), and the Coast Guard prior to releasing the vessel, no federal agency, including MARAD, was willing to stop its departure. A group of dedicated maritime preservationists had tried to work with the Coast Guard and GSA to turn the STORIS into a museum ship, but they weren't successful.

The Maritime Administration also allows commercial flag ships to leave the U.S. registry to be scrapped abroad. It's easy. The owner merely submits paperwork to MARAD for processing.  The 2010 and 2011 Annual MARAD highlights the significant number of vessels that reflagged simply to be scrapped in India and China.  See http://www.marad.dot.gov/documents/2010-11_ANNUAL_REPORTS_-_FINAL_VERSION_(3).pdf.  Each time MARAD signed off on the paperwork, people in Louisiana, Texas, and elsewhere lost job opportunities…”

While Ms. Krepp has a professional obligation and primary consideration for her representation of the domestic ship recycling facilities operated by EMR/Southern Recycling, her acknowledgement of the efforts to preserve STORIS for use as a maritime museum are appreciated. As a former U.S. Coast Guard officer, Ms. Krepp would understand and appreciate the importance of STORIS and her history. These comments read into the record for the event are a permanent official recognition of the complicity of the U.S. Coast Guard, General Services Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (as well as MARAD, as physical custodians of the ship following her decommissioning) in allowing STORIS to be exported. It was also Ms. Krepp that has pointed out that the excessing and sale of STORIS was illegal under 40 U.S.C. 548 because the ship’s displacement exceeded 1,500 tons.  

The docket for the event is listed here:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=MARAD-2014-0044

The full PDF version of Ms. Krepp’s comments can be found at: http://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?objectId=09000064816e1c93&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf

I encourage you to take the time and read them.

U.S. Coast Guard FOIA release - Part 5

Click here for Part 5 of the CG FOIA Release - 

There are a couple additional memos related to the ship’s sale, but the remainder of the documentation discusses the excessing and disposal of the ship through GSA (which we know now was a violation of Federal Law) and the associated deadlines.

The tone and content of the messages seem to indicate that the Coast Guard was only concerned about getting rid of STORIS and had no concerns or interest whatsoever in preserving the ship. This is contrary to the expressed position from Admiral Papp himself to Judith Bittner, the State Historic Preservation Officer for Alaska. I was told by Deputy SHPO Jo Antonson that Papp had discussed the preservation of the ship with Ms. Bittner at an event to honor Coast Guard history in Alaska that was held in August 2012 (click for link). I was told that Admiral Papp had personally expressed positive support to Ms. Bittner for saving the ship.  What a farce.

The CG was only hanging on to the ship because of the Congressional request to hold the ship while a possible legislative donation could be worked out (which never took place thanks to petty politics.) This hold was to be through the end of the 112th Congress. Apparently the rent for the SBRF ranged from $30K to $51K a year for storage.
Again and again throughout the correspondence, the Coast Guard insists that the ship was free of encapsulated PCBs above the regulated levels of 50 parts per million, despite the fact that there is no supporting documentation to prove otherwise and the only document provided by the Coast Guard has the brief statement claiming the ship to be free of regulated PCBs was redacted. The correspondence states the ship was eligible for domestic disposal through GSA. The key words there are “domestic disposal.” The Coast Guard knew the ship shouldn’t go out for foreign disposal, particularly since it is stated in more than one place in the documents that the Foreign Military Sales Office was not interested in STORIS. The ship should not have been excessed and sold through GSA and she ultimately ended up in a foreign scrapyard, a violation of section 3502 of the 2009 Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act. It’s against the law for U.S. Military vessels to be dismantled in foreign scrapyards.

There is also verbiage in the packet on Page 17 (originally pg. 64 of the CG PDF) that essentially lays out the need for the CG to get rid of the ship prior to the 2014 election cycle because Mark Begich would be up for re-election and would use the ship as a means of gaining favor with his constituents for re-election. So the CG wanted to get rid of the ship through GSA beforehand, possibly transferring the ship to the State of Alaska (or Ohio as was pointed out in another memo). That obviously did not happen.

There are deficiencies within this release of information, as there is correspondence that I know exists that would have been covered by the FOIA request that I did not receive. There is other correspondence that isn’t included, either. Then there is the matter of the materials that were requested that the Coast Guard denied having. That was the subject of the appeal submitted for April 28.

While the respect I have for my many friends and acquaintances who have served in the Coast Guard has not diminished, my respect and admiration for the senior command officers of the service has certainly been seriously diminished by the details revealed thus far. They have blood on their hands for contributing to the destruction of one of their own service's most historic and accomplished cutters.

What a sorry affair.