Story by PA3 Adam Baylor continued from NSF Blog:

After the collision, the Sea Witch remained moored at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard until it departed New York Harbor in 1980 for a shipyard in Newport News, Va., to undergo modifications.

The engine room was fitted into a new ship and named the Chemical Pioneer.  However, the forward 455-foot amidships and bow section of the Sea Witch was towed to Baltimore where it would, time and again, garner the attention of the Coast Guard as well as other federal and state agencies.

It remained in Baltimore’s Patapsco River for more than a decade where it was used by the ship breaking industry as a storage container for hazardous materials such as waste oil or asbestos.

In particular, a company aptly named, Seawitch Salvage took advantage of the spacious holds and began filling them with thousands of gallons of waste oil and other chemicals.  In 1993, Seawitch Salvage began the arduous task of scrapping two navy ships, the USS Illusive and the USS Coral Sea.

It was during the Coral Sea project that Seawitch Salvage and its owner, Kerry Ellis Sr., committed several federal safety and environmental violations.  The company directed its employees to remove asbestos from the Coral Sea but was not licensed to perform work with such a toxic material.

On May 30, 1997, Seawitch Salvage and Ellis were convicted with seven felony counts by the 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  The company was fined and Ellis was sentenced to prison where he eventually died from a heart attack.

In 2000, the Ellis estate including the Sea Witch moored near Sparrows Point Shipyard was purchased by the Port Authority and enrolled in the Voluntary Clean-Up Program directed by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The derelict vessel waited.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel hit the East Coast.  Before anything could be done with the Sea Witch and its belly full of cancer causing agents, it sank. 

Oil and other hazardous materials began to seep into the harbor. 

Again, the Coast Guard responded.

The Sea Witch was a “chronic pollution source,” said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Robert Birdwell of the National Strike Force’s Atlantic Strike Team based in Ft. Dix, N.J.

Birdwell, along with other members of the AST deployed to Baltimore for three weeks at a time to assist the unified command established to conduct cleanup operations.

As a federal project in 2003, the Coast Guard and other agencies were designated to respond to and mitigate marine pollution incidents managed the cleanup.  The project also authorized the use of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund which was necessary to pay for the Sea Witch response.

The area around where it sank was boomed off and more than 1,200 gallons of oil was recovered.  Workers believed a potential 50,000 gallons was on board the Sea Witch.

Work stopped after the threat of discharge was mitigated and the Sea Witch, ownerless, remained nestled to the bottom of the Patapsco River.

The case was closed for three years.

In 2007, a local contractor reported that oil was being discharged from a sunken vessel near the entrance to Baltimore Harbor.  Members of Coast Guard Sector Baltimore investigated the report and rediscovered the Sea Witch.

A unified command was re-established in October and work commenced under an existing Maryland Department of Environment vessel removal contract. 

Contractors worked with divers to remove oil visible on the surface and on bulkheads until they were forced to stop due to cold water temperatures.

In June 2008, as water temperatures rose, less viscous oil seeped from the Sea Witch’s voids and holds.  More cleanup efforts were needed but the MDE’s contract funds were exhausted.  The federal on-scene coordinator, Coast Guard Senior Chief Michael Steele of Sector Baltimore determined to federalize the case a second time.

Steele described the case as very complex and outside the Coast Guard’s normal world of work.  Without a chance to practice such a response, hard decisions had to be made, he added.  Some of those tough choices included adding safety features onboard the Sea Witch.

“Safety was a priority,” said Steele.  The large square openings cut into the steel deck to gain access to residual oil created an incredibly dangerous environment.  He relied heavily on the Marine Safety Center Salvage Engineering Response Team, which is a staff of engineers available 24-hours a day who can offer support on vessel salvage operations.  Also, Steele worked with Resolve Marine engineers, a contractor designated to cleanup and salvage.

Before turning the Sea Witch into a 400-foot piece of rusted Swiss cheese, crews added nearly $3 million worth of safety features such as an extensive hand rail and a walkway system.

The Sea Witch was lifted out of the harbor and placed in a dry dock.  Its sordid life was nearing an end.

Workers pumped the remaining hazardous waste from holds and voids, removed asbestos and other PCB materials.  The final tally on gallons of waste oil combined with organic debris removal was more than 500,000 gallons.

Now that the federal project has been closed, the final resting place of the Sea Witch is in sight and the funeral march can be heard or at least the sound of saws cutting it to pieces.

###

printer friendly

Powered by the PIER System