The Navy received permission from the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to sink the retired aircraft carrier USS Oriskany off Pensacola Beach in May, jump-starting long-delayed plans for a new program to turn old warships into artificial reefs.
The EPA issued a permit for disposal of chemical toxins known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, aboard the ship. The permit was the final hurdle Navy leaders said they needed to clear before returning the famed Korean and Vietnam War aircraft carrier from a Navy shipyard in Beaumont, Texas, to Pensacola.
"We've been working on this thing for four years now. This is a huge step forward for Pensacola," said retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman, president and CEO of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation and a longtime advocate for the Oriskany project.
The Oriskany is the first of more than 20 ships the Navy hopes to dispose of by turning them into artificial reefs.
It will be sunk with about 700 pounds of PCBs in its electrical cable, insulation and paint, which EPA officials said will slowly leach out over the estimated 100 years it will take the carrier to rust away. It should pose no danger to marine life or humans, the agency said.
The target date for sinking the ship is May 15, Fetterman said.
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