After a distinguished and honorable career in the U.S. Navy, the USS Yorktown (the fourth ship to bear the name) was decommissioned in 1970 and in 1975 was towed to Charleston to act as the main feature of Patriot’s Point. In addition to being the home to part of the Naval and Maritime museum, the Yorktown is also home to hundreds of thousands of gallons of hazardous pollutants. Tim Renaud reports that in his 2022 executive order, Governor McMaster commented “as the outer hull of the USS Yorktown continues to corrode, the chance of an environmental disaster only increases with each passing year.” A cost study was then commissioned to be conducted by the South Carolina Office of Resilience with the funding coming from the American Rescue Act Plan. Earlier this month, Governor McMaster spoke regarding the conclusion of Phase I of the project. Phase I was to identify and inventory the types and amounts of containments onboard. In addition to PCB’s, lead paint, asbestos, there are 55,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil in 428 structural tanks, 14,000 gallons of hydraulic oil in 37 locations, and 140,000 gallons of oily liquids. Thirty five breaches in the hull were also repaired by divers. 47 tanks were dewatered and those contents as well as 607,000 gallons of oily water have been removed and properly disposed of off-site.
Phase II two of the project will consist of three components: remediate, mitigate, and isolate. Remediation will address removal of an additional contaminants, mitigation which will address the cleaning of any and all affected spaces, and isolation will address the closing of any and all access to areas that could not be accessed for cleaning.
Governor McMaster thanked all those involved for the remediation process and encouraged continued efforts. One storm could come through and cause a spill that could be an environmental catastrophe for the area. McMaster commented further that there is not another moment to waste on taking care of this issue.
