By Carlos Camacho Jr.
Earlier than Okaloosa County sinks a chunk of America’s soul, right here’s what they’re not telling you.
Okaloosa County officers are shifting to sink the Nationwide Register-listed SS United States — the quickest ocean liner ever constructed, the symbolic flagship of the U.S. Service provider Marine, and one of the traditionally important ships in American historical past — as a man-made reef within the Gulf of America. They are saying every thing is so as. They are saying it’s secure. They are saying there’s no different.
None of that’s true.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The general public helps this venture.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: On the April 21 fee assembly, a 19-year-old College of West Florida scholar from Okaloosa County, Ryan Dunphy, stood on the podium and stated the venture “appalled” him, describing the plan as “naïve, ill-thought-out, incompetent, and, at worst, negligent,” and warning that sinking the ship would “cross down soiled, unsafe water to my era and the following.” His testimony wasn’t political. It was the voice of a younger Okaloosa County resident demanding honesty from his elected officers.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The contamination considerations are overblown.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Erin Brockovich — the patron safety advocate who took on Pacific Gasoline & Electrical over hexavalent chromium contamination and gained — referred to as out the SS United States by identify as a severe public well being concern. “Clear your ship up earlier than you sink her,” Brockovich wrote in a February 18 Fb put up, “or be silly, do it, hurt hundreds, and spend tons of of hundreds of thousands cleansing up your crap for the following twenty years.” That very same toxin — the one she made well-known — is chemically bonded to the ship’s metal and aluminum surfaces within the type of zinc chromate primer: an estimated 59,334 kilos of it at 4,520 mg/kg, confirmed by two impartial EPA-certified laboratory outcomes. This isn’t a unfastened coating that may merely be scraped away. It’s a Chilly Struggle-era formulation now closely restricted attributable to its toxicity, and it stays chemically bonded to the ship’s underlying supplies in methods that aren’t addressed by superficial removing strategies. Dr. Todd Osborne of the College of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience has warned that sinking this vessel dangers making a Superfund web site within the Gulf of America.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The paint has been eliminated. The ship is clear.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: At that very same April 21 assembly, Commissioner Sherri Cox — who has an undergraduate diploma in chemistry — instructed involved residents the contamination was “not going to be a problem,” whereas in the identical breath acknowledging the paint “has been eliminated additionally.” Eradicating peeling or accessible paint doesn’t tackle the substantial portions of hexavalent chromium that stay embedded throughout inside and exterior surfaces. In remediation science, disturbing zinc chromate coatings is exactly when hexavalent chromium hazard will increase, not decreases. “Not going to be a problem” isn’t an EPA customary. It’s not a TSCA customary. It’s a commissioner’s opinion.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: All required federal critiques are full.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: They don’t seem to be — and the explanation these critiques exist issues. The SS United States was constructed with Navy funding, designed to hold a whole Military division to struggle, and constructed by staff from 48 states. Okaloosa County might maintain the title, however she belongs to all of us — which is strictly why federal regulation requires a full Part 106 evaluate beneath the Nationwide Historic Preservation Act earlier than any authorities entity can destroy a property on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The permits cowl this venture.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Part 106 Memorandum of Settlement proposed by the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers for the sinking is in draft kind and won’t be finalized till all related events signal it. Even then, federal evaluate continues. The Corps allow the county is counting on — SAJ-1996-03565 — predates the ship’s acquisition, by no means names the SS United States, and was written for clear, inert supplies. No NEPA environmental evaluate has been accomplished. No ocean dumping allow has been obtained. The county has determined it’s simpler to ask forgiveness than permission. That’s not the way you deal with one thing the Best Era constructed with their very own arms.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: Divers will like it.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The proposed web site is 180 ft deep and 20 miles offshore. Commissioner Paul Mixon has publicly acknowledged there isn’t a hyperbaric chamber inside survivability vary. Each diving emergency at that depth turns into a U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue duty — a federal burden created by a county determination. To place that in perspective: fewer than one % of leisure divers are even licensed to dive that deep. The ship the county calls a “tourism asset” will likely be inaccessible to just about everybody.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: There isn’t any different possibility.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: There’s a totally developed different already on the desk. Operation Liberty Shift — a federal substitution framework submitted to congressional and federal authorities by the SS United States Preservation Basis — identifies eight SL-7 Quick Sealift Ships presently in federal management and scheduled for decommissioning. These vessels are all-steel, environmentally cleaner, almost the identical dimension because the SS United States, and already authorities property. Okaloosa County might nonetheless get its world’s largest synthetic reef. The nation would maintain its historic ship. The Basis has additionally submitted a draft America 250 Maritime Heritage Act to Congress and a draft Government Order to the White Home, each offering lawful federal pathways to protect the vessel as a Nationwide Maritime Monument. The county has been knowledgeable of those alternate options. They’ve ignored them.
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: That is good for Okaloosa County.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Okaloosa County is residence to Eglin Air Drive Base. It sits inside a congressional district that prides itself on patriotism, navy service, and American heritage. The SS United States is individually listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. She is the one vessel in American historical past to bear the identify UNITED STATES throughout her bow — no prefix, no suffix, the nation’s identify precisely because it seems. Sinking her within the Gulf of America — throughout America’s 250th anniversary yr, whereas the nation is at struggle — isn’t a tourism win. It’s a image. And never a superb one.
It is a generational determination. Protect the SS United States, and our youngsters and grandchildren will sooner or later stand on her decks and perceive what America was able to constructing. Sink her with out honesty or accountability, and she or he turns into one thing else totally — a perpetual, poisonous reminder that our era disgraced its heritage and poisoned its waters for the sake of a tourism promotion.
The window to behave is closing.
There’s a lawful path ahead that offers Okaloosa County every thing it says it desires — a large synthetic reef, a tourism draw, a world report — with out destroying an irreplaceable piece of American historical past or creating an environmental disaster within the Gulf of America. Federal authorities have that path in hand proper now.
The query is whether or not 5 county commissioners will select to make use of it earlier than it’s too late.
Carlos Camacho Jr. is co-founder and chief communications officer of the SS United States Preservation Basis, Inc., a Florida nonprofit company and a federally acknowledged Part 106 Consulting Social gathering to the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, Division of the Military Allow SAJ-1996-03565.
