The planned sale by Washington State Ferries (WSF) of two ex-ferries, the Elwha and Klahowya, to an Ecuadorian steel mill has been halted last month in part over revelations that the foreign crew of the tugboat that would have pulled the ships to Ecuador suffered poor conditions, which came to light only after the crew had difficulty conducting the towing operation about two month ago.
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As a result, WSF terminated the contract with the purchaser, Mr. Nelson Armas, and ownership reverted back to WSF.
However, according to Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN), the export would have been illegal in any case and should never have been considered given the circumstances.
As soon as the public learned of the sale of the ships to Ecuador, BAN became concerned that the export violated international laws against exporting hazardous wastes.
Ships contain highly hazardous materials and thus BAN sought records of the ship decontamination process and learned that hazardous wastes remained on the ferries even though they were approved for sale by WSF and were given the green light for export to Ecuador.
Under the Basel Convention -- a UN treaty that Ecuador and most other developing countries have ratified, developing countries cannot legally import contaminated vessels from the United States or any other developed countries.
“Washington State should never have even considered exporting its old ferries to Ecuador or any developing country without following a thorough testing protocol for materials such as asbestos and PCBs, and without removing all such discovered hazardous materials, including toxic paint.
"While we find it fortunate that the export was halted in this case, it should never have even been considered," said Jim Puckett, BAN’s Executive Director.
After reviewing the documents, BAN determined that the ships still contain several pages of listed hazardous materials and may not have been properly tested for other hazardous ship constituents such as asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints, and lubricants, which would make any transboundary movement illegal under national and international law.
WSF is now actively communicating with other unknown buyers for the two ships, and the sale of a third ship, the Hyak, is pending.
On September 3, 2024, BAN sent WSF a letter detailing their concerns and offering their help in legal analysis of the situation and finding suitable alternatives.
Ship scrapping, often known as “breakingâ€, is notorious for harming workers and causing pollution. BAN calls on WSF to take note and to ensure the ships are only sent to "green listed" recycling facilities located in an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country that has been certified by the European Commission's List of responsible ship recycling facilities.
This list is regarded internationally as the definitive list of responsible shipbreaking facilities. The only facility in North America on the European Commission's List is International Shipbreaking Limited, LLC, in Brownsville, Texas. For Washington State this is likely the cheapest and safest option that complies with all legal requirements, according to BAN.
"Scrapping ships is considered one of the most dangerous and polluting operations in the world," said BAN’s Executive Director Jim Puckett.
“Once the ship is fully decontaminated, Washington State Ferries should do the right thing and sell only to a responsible buyer, and even then, only after properly checking the boats for hazardous materials. Our offer to assist in meeting these concerns stands.†■