New tests on two World War II relics found that scrubbing aged hulls of marine growth such as seaweed and barnacles causes copper, zinc, lead and other toxic metals to come off with the organic materials.

There were 74 ships in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet as of Feb. 1, most of them decommissioned cargo and Navy vessels awaiting disposal. The Coast Guard in June ordered any ship being taken to Texas for disposal to undergo hull cleaning to stop the spread of invasive marine species.

At least four ships werecleaned at docks in Richmond and Alameda last year. MediaNews reported in September that federal documents showed that sheets of toxic metals came off the bottom of at least one ship and were left in water at the Port of Richmond, prompting a state investigation.

On Friday afternoon, Keith Lichten, an engineer with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Control Board, said California would require the Maritime Administration to either seek formal permits for further work or reach other agreements to monitor the hull cleaning and immediately remove any metals from the water.

Test results "suggest to us that we don't want to see hull materials discharged into San Francisco Bay," Lichten said.

That prompted the announcement later in the day from Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton that no more ships will be sent out of Suisun Bay until an agreement with the water board is reached and that the ship-disposal process will be reviewed. No details were provided.

But the two ships on which the tests were conducted are already gone — without being cleaned.

The Queens Victory, a World War II cargo ship, and the Jason, a repair ship of the same era, departed for Texas scrapping yards last month.

Maritime Administration spokeswoman Shannon Russell said the ships were sent out because contracts of more than $2.6 million were in place to have them cut into scrap and delays couldn't be tolerated. The administration pays to have obsolete ships destroyed.

Russell said that to comply with the Coast Guard order not to spread marine species to other U.S. waters, the ships would be cleaned before reaching Texas. She wouldn't say where.

"I just don't know," Russell said. "Google it. There are a hundred places that could do this work. There are any number of countries and facilities."

That work California considers likely to spread pollution might instead be performed in foreign or international waters "is a classic double standard," said Jim Puckett of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, an environmental group that monitors the global movement of hazardous and toxic materials.

"This is a way of transferring waste," said Puckett, whose group monitors Maritime Administration ship disposal. "The poisons go along for the ride. This is the cheap and dirty way out."

It seemed likely that the work would be done in either Mexican or Panamanian waters, he said.

Russell said that as of Friday, "as far as we are aware, the vessels have not been cleaned in any foreign country."

A Coast Guard spokeswoman said Friday that not enough information on the two ships was available for her to comment.

The Queens Victory, built in 1945, had been anchored in Suisun Bay since 1971. The Jason, which was launched in 1943 and supported Pacific Theater battle groups, had been there since 1997.

Lichten, the engineer with the regional water board, said test results from each ship showed different problems.

Much of the hull coating of the Queens Victory had leached away during decades. Under the thick growth was a rusted hull from which metals would come off into the water.

The Jason, which was the Navy's oldest active ship when it was decommissioned in 1995, had less growth but more metals from hull coatings.

Lichten said the practical option is to find a way to clean the hulls while immediately removing from the water metals that come off with the marine growth. Dry-docking of the reserve fleet ships is seen as impractical because many of them have hulls that might be too brittle to survive the process.

One option is to use devices "like pool filters" to capture the metals and suck them onto a barge, he said.

Requiring the Maritime Administration to seek a pollution-discharge permit would be "an administratively lengthy process," Lichten said.

The same results of pollution control could be achieved if an agreement is reached in which the administration agrees to closely monitor the cleaning and report the results. "That might be more efficient and still get it done," he said.

The Maritime Administration didn't inform California authorities when it began the ship cleaning last year.

MediaNews reported in August that ship experts feared the cleaning could cause hull damage and pollution. Russell, the administration spokeswoman, insisted that by using rubber scrappers the hulls would not be damaged.

But federal documents show that hull metals peeled off the bottom of the Hannibal Victory when it was cleaned in Richmond.

Lichten said the water board and the Maritime Administration have the same basic goal — to get rid of the aged ships anchored in Suisun Bay before they sink and cause pollution.

One of the biggest hurdles is that there are no active scrapping facilities on the West Coast, which means the ships must be towed to Texas, a 45-day journey.

Maritime Administration records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act show that some of the ships are in poor condition, regularly taking on water that has to be pumped out of their hulls. Ship experts say they might not endure more than six weeks on the open seas.

Several companies have considered starting ship-disposal operations in Oregon, but legislation recently introduced there would require all scrapping to be done in dry docks, which can increase costs.