[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4713-S4714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself, Mr. Glenn, and Mr. Sarbanes):
  S. 2064. A bill to prohibit the sale of naval vessels and Maritime 
Administration vessels for purposes of scrapping abroad, to establish a 
demonstration program relating to the breaking up of such vessels in 
United States shipyards, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Armed Services.


                       naval vessels legislation

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I wish to bring to the attention of the 
Senate that today I am introducing legislation to change the way we 
dispose of Navy ships that are no longer needed. I am proud to say that 
this bill is being cosponsored by my senior Senator, Paul Sarbanes, as 
well as the distinguished Senator from Ohio, Senator John Glenn.
  With the end of the cold war, the number of ships to be disposed of 
in the military arsenal is growing. There are 180 Navy and Maritime 
Administration ships waiting to be scrapped. These ships are difficult 
and dangerous to dismantle. They usually contain asbestos, PCBs, and 
lead paint. They were built long before we understood all of the 
environmental hazards associated with these materials.
  I am prompted to offer this legislation because an issue was brought 
to my attention by a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles that 
appeared in the Baltimore Sun written by reporters Gary Cohn and Will 
Englund. They conducted a very thorough and rigorous investigation into 
the way we dispose of our Navy and maritime ships. They traveled around 
the country and around the world to see firsthand how our ships are 
dismantled.
  I must advise the Senate that the way we do this is not being done in 
an honorable, environmentally sensitive, efficient way. I believe that 
when we have ships that have defended the United States of America, 
that were floating military bases, they should be retired with honor. 
When I unfold to you the horror stories that the Sun paper found, you 
will be shocked, and I hope you will join in the cosponsorship of my 
bill.
  Let me recite from the Sun paper:

       As the Navy sells off obsolete warships at the end of the 
     cold war, a little known industry has grown up in America's 
     depressed ports, and where the shipbreaking industry goes, 
     pollution and injured workers are left in its wake.

  Headline No. 1. No. 2:

       The Pentagon repeatedly deals with shipbreakers with dismal 
     records, then fails to keep watch as they leave health, 
     environmental and legal problems in America's ports.

  In terms of our own communities on the border in Brownsville, TX:

       In this U.S. shipbreaking capital on the Mexican border, 
     where labor and life are cheap, scrapping thrives amid 
     official indifference.

  And, I might say, danger.
  Also, even more horrendous is the way we use the Third World to dump 
American ships: In India, the Sun paper found:

       On a fetid beach, 35,000 men scrap the world's ships with 
     little more than their bare hands. Despite wretched 
     conditions--

  And dangerous environmental situations.
  I point out what this means close to home. Let me tell you some 
stories. In Baltimore:

       Workers have been toiling in air thick with asbestos dust. 
     In Baltimore, laborers scrapping the USS Coral Sea ripped 
     asbestos insulation from the aircraft carrier with their bare 
     hands. At times they had no respirators, standard equipment 
     for asbestos work. [As we all know,] inhaling asbestos fibers 
     can have . . . lethal consequences.

  It was not limited to Baltimore. At Terminal Island, CA, 20 laborers 
were fired when they told Federal investigators how asbestos was being 
improperly stripped from Navy ships. In Baltimore, workers were ordered 
to stuff asbestos into a leaky barge to hide it from inspectors.

       Dangerous substances from scrapped ships have polluted 
     harbors, rivers and shorelines.

  The Sun paper goes on to say:

       A scrapyard along the Northeast Cape Fear River in 
     Wilmington, NC, was contaminated by asbestos, oil and lead. 
     ``That site looked like one of Dante's levels of hell,'' said 
     David Heeter, a North Carolina assistant attorney general.
       Ship scrappers frustrate regulators by constructing a maze 
     of corporate names and moving frequently. The Defense 
     Department has repeatedly sent ships to scrappers who have 
     records of bankruptcies, fraud [and] payoffs. . . .

  Because of downsizing, the Navy promised that this would be a 
bonanza, for amounts ranging from $15,000 to dismantle a destroyer--15 
grand to dismantle a destroyer--to $1 million for an aircraft carrier.

       They buy the rights to Navy ships, then sell the salvaged 
     metal. . . .
       Because of environmental violations and other issues, the 
     Navy has had to take back 20 ships in yards in North 
     Carolina, Rhode Island and California. . . . Of the 58 ships 
     sold for scrapping since 1991, only 28 have been finished.

  And, oh, my God, how they have been finished.
  I would like to turn to my hometown of Baltimore. Mr. President, this 
is what the Coral Sea looked like while it was being dismantled in the 
Baltimore harbor. It looks like it was ravaged, like it was 
cannibalized. It looks like a tenement in a Third World area.
  The Sun paper continues:

       In Baltimore, torch handlers worked without other men on 
     fire watch and without fire hoses. . . .

  Picture yourself going out there trying to do that in the early 
morning.

       The Coral Sea's dismal end has been marked by stubborn 
     fires and dumping of oil in the harbor, by lawsuits and 
     repeated delays--but most of all, by the mishandling of 
     asbestos.

  Let me tell you that it was so bad that even a Navy inspector who 
came to look at what they were doing was scared to death to go on that 
ship because he was afraid it was too dangerous.
  I am quoting the Sun paper.

       On September 16, 1993, [the military] sent its lone 
     inspector----

  One inspector for the United States----

       On his first visit to the Seawitch Salvage yard in 
     Baltimore. . . . But Evans didn't inspect [it because]. . . . 
     He thought it was too dangerous.
       The next day, a 23-year-old worker named Alfio Leonardi Jr. 
     found out how unsafe it would be.

  He walked on a flight deck up in that situation and dropped 30 feet 
from the hangar.

       I felt a burning feeling inside. . . . There was blood 
     coming out of my month. I didn't think I was going to live.

  He suffered a ruptured spleen, fractured pelvis, fractured vertebrae, 
and he broke his arms in several places.
  The inspector was new to the job when the accident occurred. He had 
only 20 hours of training on environmental issues. He was not 
appropriately trained, and he didn't even know what shipbreaking was. 
At the same time, we had repeated fires breaking out.
  In November of 1996, a fire broke out in the Coral Sea engine room. 
There was no one standing fire watch, no hose nearby. The blaze burned 
quickly out of control, and for the sixth time, Baltimore City's fire 
department had to come in and rescue the shipyard. At the same time, 
the owner of this shipyard had a record of environmental violations for 
which he ultimately went to jail.
  We cannot tolerate this in the Baltimore harbor. If you look there, 
that is

[[Page S4714]]

where it is, right across from Ft. McHenry that defended the United 
States of America and won the second battle in the war of 1812. And 
look at it. That is what it looks like. It is a national disgrace that 
that was in the harbor as well as a national environment danger.
  Right down the road was the Baltimore City Shipyard, the Bethlehem 
Steel Shipyard that was foraging for work. Another fighting lady from 
Maryland, Helen Bentley, our former Congresswoman--she and I and 
Senator Paul Sarbanes worked for Baltimore to be a home port. We were 
desperate for work in our shipyard--desperate. But no; do you think the 
Navy turned to shipyards like Bethlehem Steel? They turned to the 
rogues, the crooks, the scum, the scams, to dismantle our Navy ships.
  I think the ships deserve more. I think the Baltimore harbor deserves 
more. And I think the United States of America deserves more. That is 
why I am introducing legislation to create a pilot project on how we 
can dispose of these ships, and in a way that is efficient, is orderly, 
and environmentally safe, and keeps the work in American shipyards, 
because while this was so terrible in my own home of Baltimore, MD, let 
me show you what was going on in the Third World.
  This is the U.S. Navy ships being dismantled in India. Thirty-five 
thousand people work on a beach, often with no shoes, dismantling ships 
with their bare hands. This is so dangerous, in terms of what they are 
doing, that I believe it is an international disgrace. I was appalled 
we were also exporting our environmental problems overseas.
  Mr. President, I called upon Secretary Cohen, when I read this 
series, to immediately stop what we were doing and to take a look. He 
did it. I want to thank him for his prompt response. He analyzed what 
they should do, and they made recommendations. But the recommendation 
was more enforcement of the same old way of doing business. Well, more 
enforcement of the same old way of doing business will still end up 
with the same old way of doing business--occupational safety dangers, 
environmental catastrophes, and a national disgrace.

  So that is why I am introducing my own legislation. The first section 
of the legislation will absolutely ban the shipping, the sending of our 
180 Navy ships overseas to be dismantled in such despicable situations. 
The other part establishes a pilot project for the U.S. Navy to look at 
how it could put our ships out for dismantling bids in American 
shipyards that meet environmental and occupational standards. Those 
shipyards, like the ones in my own hometown of Baltimore, that are fit 
for duty. They know how to build a ship. They know how to convert a 
ship. They know how to dismantle a ship.
  I think the Navy can do better. The Navy has an outstanding record of 
dismantling nuclear submarines. They do it in a particular and unique 
way. They have the ingenuity and the technical competence, but they 
lack the will and the resources. What I hope my legislation will do is 
give them both the will and the resources to dismantle this in a way 
that retires our ships with honor. I knew that when the Senate saw 
those pictures they would be as taken aback as I have been.
  I thank the Sun paper for their outstanding series in bringing this 
to not only my attention but to America's attention. They won the 
Pulitzer Prize. But I want the United States of America to be sure that 
we win an environmental victory here.
  So, Mr. President, I am going to be introducing my legislation today 
as we speak. In fact, I send my legislation to the desk and ask that it 
be referred to the appropriate committees. I just want to close by 
saying that when we close military bases, we do it the right way, we 
pay to clean them up, we close them down and find other basic ways of 
recycling their use.
  Every weekend I am around veterans who wear the ships on which they 
sailed. They have the U.S.S. Coral Sea; they have a variety of the 
ships that they sailed on. They are proud of those ships, and I am 
proud of those ships. And I am proud of the military. I conclude by 
saying, I thank Secretary Cohen for his leadership as well as Secretary 
Perry. They have done more environmentally positive things for the 
military than we have ever had done. But this is the next step.
  I yield the floor, and I thank the Senate for its kind attention.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately 
referred.
  The Democratic leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, let me thank the distinguished Senator 
from Maryland for her eloquent statement. I appreciate her leadership. 
Her statement this morning is one that I wish the whole country could 
hear. Her leadership and her willingness to be involved in this issue 
is critical to all of us. And I appreciate so much her eloquence and 
the studious way in which she has pursued this matter.
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