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Posted on 04/06/2004 10:56:12 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Navy chooses Pensacola over local site
The Korean War-era aircraft carrier that is parked at Texas Docks & Rail will not be sunk off the shores of Corpus Christi, and instead will be sunk off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., Navy officials announced Monday.
The fact that the ship is going to Florida also doesn't give Texas an advantage the next time the Navy decides where to sink the 24 other ships that are scheduled to be made into artificial reefs, said Pat Dolan, deputy director for congressional and Navy public affairs.
"It will be a competitive process each time," Dolan said. "We can't say, 'Because they (Florida) got one now we'll give the next one to a different state.'"
Florida was chosen among four applications from five states to get the 888-foot USS Oriskany - one application each from Florida, Mississippi and Texas and a joint proposal from Georgia and South Carolina.
Florida had the winning application primarily because of three elements that no other state had: an active reef-monitoring program, high public support and an existing Army Corps of Engineers permit to sink the ship, Dolan said.
Texas did not have an existing permit to sink ships, Dolan said.
The Oriskany will still spend about six months parked at Texas Docks & Rail in Corpus Christi, where oily solvents will be drained and asbestos removed from hundreds of tanks and bilge compartments.
Once the ship is cleaned, the Navy will transfer ownership of the ship to Florida, most likely before the end of the summer, Dolan said.
Paul Hammerschmidt, director of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's artificial reef program, said the Corps of Engineers permit would have cost about $80,000. He said he didn't want to spend state money when the Navy didn't provide exact dimensions on the ship and there was no guarantee that Texas would get the ship.
Using military ships as artificial reefs has tourism benefits such as attracting scuba divers and improving fishing in the area. The ship becomes a home to a variety of fish, including some whose populations have declined because of overfishing, such as the red snapper.
If the Oriskany is accessible to divers, it could have an annual economic impact of $92 million, according to a report in November by the News-Journal in Pensacola, Fla., a newspaper in the city that is the birthplace of naval aviation.
One of the local men who served on the Oriskany, Bill Noonan of Portland, said he was glad that the Navy made a choice.
"I think it's great that it's going to the cradle of naval aviation," Noonan said.
Contact Matthew Sturdevant at 886-3778 or sturdevantm@caller.com
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You mean the ex-residents of New York and New Jersey?
Thankfully, they tend to congregate in Palm Beach and Broward and are nowhere to be found in Pensacola...
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