Ghost ships court battle
by Evening Gazette
14 October 2004 –
The battle over whether nine American ghost ships will be dismantled on Teesside will rage in a US courtroom from tomorrow. Environmentalists are fighting to scupper a US Government contract with Teesside-based Able UK. The Graythorp company has won a contract to dismantle and recycle 13 ships from the US ghost fleet.
But last September US green groups the Basel Action Network and the Sierra Club challenged the legality of the deal in a US court.
At the time the judge allowed four ships to leave and since arriving the ships have sat at Graythorp dock, waiting for Able to get the paperwork it needs to recycle them.
That left nine ships still waiting on the James River in Virginia. Tomorrow Judge Rosemary M Collyer will hear further arguments in the case.
Michael Town, of the Sierra Club, said: "The judge has so far done a great job of listening to our arguments and has proved sympathetic.
"We have the ability to deal with these ships and should do."
Earthjustice, which is arguing on behalf of the green groups, will say the US Government ignored waste export laws to dispose of the ships to Britain, and that America has "an international responsibility not to dump them onto our global neighbours".
A decision could be made on the nine boats by the end of the month.
FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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