Navy-focused businesses could face grim future as Mayport frigates decommissioned

If Bart Snow sounds OK about the ongoing decommissioning of Mayport Naval Station frigates, it’s because his small company is profiting from sending the warships into mothballs.

“That’s a good-sized job, and it’s going to keep us busy,” said Snow, founder and president of Sun Coast Environmental, which cleans, dries out and seals fuel tanks on combat vessels at the Jacksonville base.

But that’s right now. Push Snow to talk about the prospects for work in two or three years, and his predictions become a bit more negative — grim, in fact.

“Come 2015, we’re going to be out of business as far as we know,” he said.

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